Named a best book of the year by the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, Kirkus, the Chicago Public Library, Amazon, BookPage, and BookRiot, a best California book of the year by the New York Times, and a Washington Post notable book.
“A glorious book — an assured novel that’s gorgeously told…. It’s about human nature. It’s about our relationships to our loved ones and our communities, it’s about morality and greed, it’s about our understanding of and respect for the natural world.” — John McMurtrie, New York Times Book Review
“Damnation Spring offers that rare opportunity to become part of a small community and move among its members until their hopes and fears seem as real as our own. By the end, I felt both grateful to have known these people and bereft at the prospect of leaving them behind.” — Ron Charles, Washington Post
“Probably the best novel I’ll read this year. It’s about work and love and characters who ring true. By the time I was 50 pages in, I could hardly put it down. Can’t stop thinking about it.” — Stephen King, on Twitter
“[an] astonishingly polished and immensely affecting debut novel…a knockout…” — Alexis Burling, San Francisco Chronicle
“sachvui.co unforgettable portrait of the very real consequences that environmental decay can hold, for nature and humanity alike.” —Vogue
“If you’re jonesing for a big family saga, Ash Davidson’s debut will do the trick. Damnation Spring tackles major issues with authentic rage and grief.” —LA Times
“With great empathy and care…demonstrates how competing values play out against a backdrop of climate change in America.” —The New Yorker
“[A] powerful debut.” —The Boston Globe
“An impressively well-turned story about how environmental damage creeps into our bodies, psyches, and economies.” — Kirkus Reviews★
Barnes & Noble August Discover Pick | CBS Sunday Morning Book Report with Ron Charles | Washington Post 10 Books to Read in August | Oprah Daily Best Books of August 2021 | Featured Debut, Amazon Best of the Month | A Book of the Month Club Selection | CNN 20 New Books to Read this August | Town & Country Best Books to Read This August | Business Insider The 10 Best New Books to Read in August | Entertainment Weekly Best New Books to Read in August | Harper’s Bazaar 46 Books You Need to Read in 2021 | American Booksellers Association Indie Next List Pick | WBEZ Chicago Summer Read | Los Angeles Times 10 Best Books for Your Summer Beach Reading | Vogue Best Books to Read This Summer | BookPage 6 Debut Novelists for the Last Days of Summer | The Daily Beast Best Summer Reads of 2021 | Kirkus Reviews Hottest Summer Reads of 2021 | Off the Shelf Summer Most Anticipated: 22 New Books You’ll Want in Your Beach Bag | Lit Hub 38 Books You Need to Read This Summer | Lit Hub Most Anticipated Books of 2021 | Book Riot Most Anticipated Releases of 2021 | Library Journal Rising Stars, August 2021 | Library Journal Titles to Watch 2021
Read an excerpt on CBS Sunday Morning ›
Not a lot of guys are born to do something.
For generations, Rich Gundersen’s family has chopped a livelihood out of the redwood forest along California’s rugged coast near Damnation Grove, a swath of ancient redwoods on which Rich’s employer, Sanderson Timber Co., plans to make a killing. In 1977, with most of the forest cleared or protected, a grove like Damnation – and beyond it 24-7 Ridge, named for the diameter of its largest redwood, a tree Rich was born to harvest – is a logger’s sachvui.co’s dangerous work. Rich has already lived decades longer than his father, killed on the job. Rich wants better for his son, so when the opportunity arises to buy 24-7 Ridge – costing all the savings they’ve squirreled away for their growing family – he grabs it, unbeknownst to his wife, Colleen. Because the reality is their family isn’t growing; Colleen has lost several pregnancies. And she isn’t alone. As a midwife, Colleen has seen it with her own sachvui.co decades, the herbicides the logging company uses were considered harmless. But Colleen is no longer so sure. What if these miscarriages aren’t isolated strokes of bad luck? As mudslides take out clear-cut hillsides and salmon vanish from creeks, her search for answers threatens to unravel not just Rich’s plans for the 24-7, but their marriage too, dividing a town that lives and dies on timber.
