This enormous tome was really two separate books, but with the same characters. The first is a collection of short stories, each about a character and how their story is tied to a tree; further stories are sometimes about the original character’s child or descendant, but the trees remain the heart of the stories. (The depiction of the blight of the American chestnut, and the steamrolling impact it had on American lives, is beautifully conveyed.) In the second part of the book, the stories of some (but not all) of the characters begin to converge, each in their own way moved to take action against humanity’s selfish, careless assault on nature. Although the writing was polished and beautiful, the overall book was very uneven for me; after the sharp focus of each of the introductory stories, the plot moved jerkily between the nine (!) protagonists’ viewpoints, staggering from one story to the next, eventually breaking off without really reaching a solid conclusion.