Greenwood

Published in 2020, Greenwood is a multi-generational saga by Canadian author Michael Christie. The novel was inspired by Christie’s expertise as a carpenter, borrowing its structure from the layered rings of tree trunks. Greenwood was nominated for several prestigious awards, including the BC Book Awards, the Evergreen Awards, and the longlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. It also won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 2020.

The novel revolves around several generations of the Greenwood family, whose fortunes rise and wane with historical upheavals from the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s to the Great Withering that wipes out the majority of the world’s forests by 2038. At the root of the Greenwood story are the estranged brothers Harris and Everett Greenwood, who come to care for a child abandoned in the forest. A century later, their actions affect Jacinda “Jake” Greenwood, a tour guide racked with anxiety over mounting student debt and the fear that the Great Withering may soon strike one of the world’s last great forest preserves. The Greenwood’s stories explore the impact of fate on nature and nurture, the value of family legacies, and humanity’s symbiotic relationship with the environment.

This study guide refers to the Trade Paperback Edition of the novel, published by Hogarth in 2021.

Content Warning: The source material for this study guide includes depictions of drug abuse and addiction.

Plot Summary

Greenwood is composed of five connected narratives that span from the year 1908 to 2038. The novel employs a nested structure that begins with the last chronological story and moves in reverse order. Parts 1 to 4 each end their narratives without resolution, a pattern that ends with Part 5, the only section that delivers its narrative in full. Parts 6 to 9 then revisit the narratives in the correct chronological order, providing the respective resolutions to each story. This summary recounts the novel’s events in chronological order.

In 1908, two boys are orphaned after surviving a train crash. A nearby town raises the boys as adoptive brothers, giving them the names Harris and Everett Greenwood. The town chooses to educate Harris because of his entrepreneurial potential. During the First World War, Harris volunteers as a soldier but loses his eyesight shortly before deployment. Everett takes his place to stop him from leaving. Harris develops a lumber empire and decides to welcome Everett back on his return. Everett’s shellshock prevents him from returning home on time, however, which causes Harris to believe he is dead.

In 1934, Everett is living in the woods outside of Saint John collecting maple sap when he discovers an abandoned baby. He leaves town with the baby when he realizes that she is being sought after by the wealthy industrialist R.J. Holt. Harvey Bennett Lomax, a debt collector for Holt, pursues Everett and the baby but becomes sidetracked by a number of obstacles, including his chronic joint pain and an addiction to opium. When Lomax learns that Everett is the brother of logging titan Harris Greenwood, he decides to intercept him at Harris’s place of residence. Harris is still unaware, however, of his brother’s whereabouts. Since Harris is blind, he employs a poet named Liam Feeney to describe his surroundings on a business trip to Japan. Harris successfully negotiates a deal to supply lumber to the Japanese government in the years leading up to the Second World War. At the same time, he and Feeney begin a romantic relationship.

In Saskatchewan, Everett and the baby, whom he has temporarily named Pod, arrive on the dirt farm of a woman named Temple Van Horne. Temple becomes aware that the two are fugitives but agrees to shelter them while Everett plants maple trees around her lot. Temple teaches Everett to read, and they fall in love. When the authorities catch up to Everett, he tries to reach out to Harris. Lomax brings Everett to Harris and demands a diary that would incriminate Holt by exposing his affair with the baby’s mother, Euphemia Baxter. Everett is unable to give him the diary since he left it at Temple’s farm, so he and Feeney forge a diary that will send Lomax away. Lomax gets sidetracked because of his addiction to opium, but he soon realizes that he has been duped. He blackmails Harris with the knowledge of his relationship with Feeney to pressure him into giving up Everett. Harris betrays his brother, and Everett decides to hide Pod, whom he renames Willow Greenwood, believing that Harris will eventually find her.

In 1974, Willow is asked by her estranged industrialist father, Harris, to pick up her uncle, Everett, upon his release from prison. In exchange, Harris will grant Willow unrestricted access to his private island, where she plans to hide from the police after sabotaging logging machines. Though Willow and Everett maintained a correspondence during Willow’s early years, Everett hints at a deeper connection to Willow that she cannot remember. She remains cautious of him before he leaves to fulfill personal business in Saskatchewan. Several months later, Willow gives birth to her son, Liam, around the same time that Harris dies. Willow reunites with Everett and meets Liam Feeney. Though Willow still bears resentment over her father’s legacy, she realizes that Harris loved Feeney. At the reading of Harris’s will, Willow is named as the primary benefactor while Everett and Feeney are named as secondary benefactors, which Willow refuses to contest. Though Willow initially decides to move to Greenwood Island with her son, she realizes it would be against her principles to hide from the world. She donates the island to an environmental organization and lives life on the road.

In 2008, Liam Greenwood suffers a critical fall that breaks his spine. The pain forces him to remember his life as he crawls between his van and the house he was remodeling. Liam’s life is defined by his tenuous relationships with his environmentalist mother, Willow, and a violinist named Meena Bhattacharya, who is the mother of his child, Jacinda. Liam initially becomes a carpenter to spite his mother but reconciles with her after he develops an addiction to oxycodone and loses his business to insurance companies. Liam falls deeply in love with Meena and is upset by her apparent detachment from him. When Meena is loaned a valuable Stradivarius viola, Liam crafts an exact replica of the viola for Meena’s personal use. Meena is overwhelmed by his gift. Their ensuing argument causes her to call out Liam’s overreliance on others to affirm his desire for permanence and regularity. Though Liam and Meena become estranged, she gives birth to Jacinda. Liam ignores Jacinda’s existence until the very last moment of his life, carving his last will on the floor to bequeath his possessions to his daughter.

In 2038, Jacinda “Jake” Greenwood is a forest guide for the Greenwood Arboreal Cathedral. The Cathedral is considered a luxury tourist spot after a destructive event known as the Great Withering wipes out most of the world’s forests. Jake resents her job but relies on it to pay off her overwhelming student debt. During a tour, she notices a sickness spreading among the trees, making her concerned that the Withering has reached the Cathedral. She is approached by her ex-fiancé, Silas, a lawyer who believes that Jake may have a claim of ownership over the island where the Cathedral is situated. The claim is based on the discovery of a diary belonging to a woman named Euphemia Baxter, who is believed to have given birth to the only daughter of R.J. Holt, the founder of the Cathedral’s corporate owner. Jake doubts the validity of the claim but finds comfort in Euphemia’s diary. When her request to cut down the sick trees is denied by her supervisor, she takes matters into her own hands and cuts them down herself. Before she is banished from the island, she visits Silas and affirms her ownership of the diary and whatever fortunes it entitles her to redeem. She leaves Greenwood feeling hopeful as the island’s trees begin to reproduce.