The Trees cover art

The Trees

A Novel

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The Trees

By: Percival Everett
Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
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About this listen

An uncanny literary thriller addressing the painful legacy of lynching in the US, by the author of Telephone

Percival Everett's The Trees is a must-listen that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till.

The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, but soon discover that eerily similar murders are taking place all over the country. Something truly strange is afoot. As the bodies pile up, the MBI detectives seek answers from a local root doctor who has been documenting every lynching in the country for years, uncovering a history that refuses to be buried. In this bold, provocative book, Everett takes direct aim at racism and police violence. The Trees is an enormously powerful novel of lasting importance from an author with his finger on America's pulse.

©2021 Percival Everett (P)2022 Tantor Crime Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Fiction Murder Witty Social justice Suspense Detective Mississippi

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All stars
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A deeply unsettling story that needs to be heard. For a non American listener it maybe takes a while to get you eat tuned to the delivery, but it's worth it. Whip smart in points and deeply worrying in others.

Haunting

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As a story I regard this as jumbled and incomplete. It feels like a book that tries too much and doesn’t deliver on any front apart from highlighted historic racist atrocities.

There were a few funny lines and the playing with peoples names was clever if a little overused.

It’s not a bad book and certainly better than I could write however I cannot see what the fuss is other than messaging that will appeal to some demographics and one side of the ongoing culture apocalypse. To Kill a Mockingbird it ain’t

One real message, otherwise incoherent

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Remarkable book. I have Bill Nighy to thank for mentioning that he was hoping for this book as his Xmas gift when he stood in for Iggy Pop on BBC Radio 6 Music.

The past remains present in determining the future.

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A really compelling read - keeps pace so well. First time reading Percival Everett and massively impressed. Narration brilliantly done too.

Clever and cutting

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I like the characters, from the agile 105 year old with a sharp mind, Zee, to the toddler of Hot Mamma Yellah, the ABI to the FBI, well drawn and well developed The story was interesting and believable. However I found the language tiring although it was a believable response to the scenarios being played out.
The reader made every character unique so it was easy to keep track of everyone. I wondered if the author was considering a sequel or a volume 2. It seemed unfinished to me. I assumed the reader was supposed to draw their own conclusions.

Excellent reader

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You have to be ready for some violence, & very racist attitudes & language - not ‘gratuitous’ though, I’d say. If your a Trump supporter or denizen of the USA ‘deep south’ be ready for what you might, by now, be thinking of as stereotyping. Sorry! A short but fantastic novel that says some needful things & is always going off in unexpected directions.

Excellent Novel

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Not sure how I feel about this novel. Bits I loved, some made me laugh out loud and some made me feel very uncomfortable.
But overall definitely worth a credit.

Thought provoking and disturbing

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James, by Everett, is the best thing I've read for a long while, This is astonishing, Making people laugh in a narrative about a lynching? It's elegaic and angry and gorgeously written.

A punch in the gut piece of brilliance

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Money is the epicentre of a series of white murders linked to historical lynchings/ murders.

Series of murders rocks America

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This Booker Prize finalist is funny, gruesome, intelligent, topical, satirical, pointed. Some characters border on stereotypes, but Everett’s sharp details render them realistic. Cannot recommend more highly.

Even better than you’ve heard!

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