Greenwood: A Novel

One of Canada's most acclaimed novelists presents a magnificent generational saga that charts a family's rise and fall, its secrets and inherited crimes. Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, "Greenwood" by Michael Christie is a rugged, riveting novel that will satisfy fans of Richard Powers's "The Overstory." The New York Times Book Review praises the author for his shape-shifting narrative and his ability to penetrate to the core of things.

The novel is set in different time periods, from 2038 with Jacinda (Jake) Greenwood working as a tour guide in one of the world's last remaining forests, to 2008 when Liam Greenwood is a carpenter recovering from a workplace fall, and back to 1974 when Willow Greenwood is released from jail after being locked up for her environmental protests. In 1934, Everett Greenwood finds himself alone in his maple-syrup camp squat when he becomes involved in a web of crime, secrets, and betrayal that will impact his family for decades. Throughout the novel, trees serve as a guiding metaphor for withering, weathering, and survival.

"Greenwood" is a shining, intricate novel that tells the story of the bonds and breaking points of money and love, wood, and blood. It explores the hopeful, impossible task of growing toward the light in a rain-soaked and sun-dappled narrative. Michael Christie's effortless sentences and the steady, silent pulse of trees make this a compelling and immersive reading experience.

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