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Thanks to my GR friends, I have had the pleasure of reading a wonderful saga of a novel, with great characters, complicated family relationships, beautiful descriptions of nature and social themes. This novel is set in four periods of time: 1938 after all mature vegetation has ceased to exist, except on a tiny island off the west coast of Canada, where Jacinda (Jake) Greenwood is a tour guide; 2008 when Liam Greenwood, a carpenter suffers an accident; 1974 when Willow Greenwood is an environmental activist (particularly against the timber industry) living in her Westphalia van; 1934, when Everett Greenwood, a veteran, and loner living in the forest, tries to do the right thing and must travel from eastern to western Canada, while his brother, Harris, amasses a fortune in the lumber business; and 1908, when we first meet Harris and Everett as orphaned boys. The heart of the novel revolves around trees. Each main character taps trees, makes trees into shelters, harvests trees, agitates for trees, does unique woodwork, or works in the world’s only remaining forest. Beautifully, the novel starts in 2038, wends its way in reverse chronological order back to 1908, and, then, just like the “other side� of the rings of a tree, makes its way chronologically back through the time periods. But this is not just a novel about the destruction of trees by mankind � it is much more than that � which I why I enjoyed it so much. Each of the main characters is complex and fully human - riddled with weaknesses, desires and often poor choices � yet each character has innate goodness that also shines through (except for one notable lesser character). There are more themes than I can name, including poverty, excessive wealth, loneliness, PTSD, the effect of the Depression and the dust bowl, itinerant life, lost books and climate change. Each is explored through the characters and the storyline, rather than being pounded into the reader, which is much more enjoyable and effective in my opinion. However, in addition to trees, the core of the story lies in the concept of family. In this novel the Greenwood “Family� is created in 1908, by the two orphaned boys. The novel evolves from them, but the Greenwood Family is not necessarily a traditional family created through blood and marriage. The family experiences love, abandonment, deceit, secrecy, acceptance and rejection, and the reader is left to ponder exactly what constitutes a family and what one generation leaves (or does not leave) to the next. This novel fully captured my attention and my heart, and my only complaint is that (for me) the part of the storyline set in the future did not work very well (as is often the case).