NY, Norton, (2018). Signed by the author on the publisher's tipped-in leaf. His latest novel, in which a group of related human stories are cast in a context defined by trees, which have a longer timeline for their lives, and a different scale of concerns. Powers takes a number of characters, some based on recognizable individuals -- one is derived in part from Julia Butterfly Hill, the tree-sitting eco-activist, another from a quadriplegic PLATO programmer who designed that early computer network's most popular interactive multi-user game -- and records their stories in the context of the trees they encounter and are involved with. The trees, on their part, have characteristics taken from the latest scientific understanding of trees and forests, much of which can be found in Peter Wollheben's The Hidden Life of Trees. The sections of the book are named after the parts of trees -- Roots, Trunk, Crown, and Seeds -- and, taking his cue from the understory of forests, where much of what happens is at a human scale, Powers coins a word for his title to describe the place where what happens is on an entirely different scale from that of humans. Bill McKibben, the environmental activist, wrote: "Richard Powers manages to turn trees into vivid and engaging characters, something that indigenous people have done for eons but that modern literature has rarely if ever even attempted." Fine in a fine dust jacket. Prior to this novel, the National Book Award-winning author was known to refrain from signing any of his works. [#033396] SOLD