Shop

The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of – and paean to – the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A New York Times Bestseller.

From the acclaimed author of The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and brilliant speculative thriller about families: real and virtual.

Some families are virtually perfect…

The world’s population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them.

But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby…

Set in the same universe as John Marrs’s bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate Tamagotchi—a virtual baby.

Ten years ago, Aurora Bianchi fled Italy after a fatal decision. When she reached the safety of New York City, she thought she’d successfully left her dark past—and her demon—behind.

“No one was allowed to have her pain and misery except for me.”

But for the last decade, Roman Mancini has been plotting revenge against the Bianchi family for the murder of his cousin. After seizing their assets and crippling their business, there’s one remaining piece to complete his nefarious puzzle.

“I was treading on a path to hell, but I found myself welcoming the devil in front of me.”

When Aurora is dragged back to Italy to negotiate a peace treaty between the two opposing Mafia families, she’s forced to face down her demon. But she quickly learns there’s only one thing that Roman wants: her hand in marriage. As Roman’s callous plans force them closer together, they both find something they aren’t expecting.