Book Log 2021 #61: Greenwood by Michael Christie

This multi-generational story follows members of the Greenwood family, whose past (and future) is intertwined with the trees on Canada's Pacific coast. The trees play a central role in their economic and personal fortunes, from the earliest Greenwood hacking a living out of the dense forest to the current generation that's showing one of the last stands of forest on earth to wealthy ecotourists.

The book's structure is like that of tree rings, with each layer telling another part of the whole story. The chapters set in the future, when much of humanity is affected by an ecological catastrophe, unintentionally echo the Covid-19 pandemic (which was just taking hold in the US when the book was published). That coincidence may keep some readers away, but this isn't really a pandemic novel. I think of it more along the lines of The Ministry for the Future in terms of showing a potential future, but with a much deeper historical scope.