Body and Blood of Christ (B)

In The Overstory, Richard Powers combines acute historical research with artistic prowess to create a spell-binding novel, one with the prophetic promise to change our attitudes toward creation. It opens with the story of Nicholas Hoel, a Brooklyn immigrant, who falls in love with his Irish sweetheart on a day spent throwing rocks to loosen chestnuts from trees. When they head west to homestead, he sentimentally ports along several chestnuts, which he plants at their new home in Iowa. Only one tree survives, though it flourishes. Once a month, for the rest of his life, Nicholas takes a photograph of the tree, alone on the Iowa prairie...