Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER Named a Best Book of 2021 by Newsweek, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times A glorious book an assured novel that's gorgeously told - The New York Times Book Review An incredibly moving epic about an unforgettable family - CBS Sunday Morning (An) absorbing novel. . . I felt both grateful to have known these people and bereft at the prospect of leaving them behind - The Washington Post A stunning novel about love, work, and marriage that asks how far one family and one community will go to protect their future. Colleen and Rich Gundersen are raising their young son, Chub, on the rugged California coast. It's 1977, and life in this Pacific Northwest logging town isn't what it used to be. For generations, the community has lived and breathed timber, now that way of life is threatened. Colleen is an amateur midwife. Rich is a tree-topper. It's a dangerous job that requires him to scale trees hundreds of feet tall a job that both his father and grandfather died doing. Colleen and Rich want a better life for their son and they take steps to assure their future. Rich secretly spends their savings on a swath of ancient redwoods.

  • Suggested age range- Adult
  • Format- Paperback
  • Dimensions- 5.2" W x 8.1" H x 1.2" D
  • Genre- Fiction
  • Publisher- Scribner, Publication date- 05-03-2022
  • Page count- 464
  • ISBN- 9781982144418

Web ID: 16778612

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4 months ago
from Atlanta Ga

Historical Fiction with heart

A lovely story of love and struggle that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. We follow Rich and Colleen as they navigate life as part of a logging community. The story is a little slow moving but it suits the mood and flow of this long arching story of the difficulties of building a life and raising a family. The story focuses on the 1970 during a time when chemicals were still commonly used to control growth of unwanted plants. I knew very little about the way this affected pregnancies and the growth of children so while the story was entertaining and captivating it was also educational to learn more about this time and how women in particular were influenced by the poor behavior of the logging industry.

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

9 months ago
from MA

A Fantastic novel

I don't usually write reviews on this site, but I had to for this one. I bought it during B&N's 50% hardcovers in 2021, but only got around to starting it on 1/27/2024. I had heard good things about this book but it exceeded my expectations and by the end I was floored by how good it was. And get this - its a debut novel!

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

2 years ago

Great read!

I enjoyed this book as it vaguely reminded me of a book I adored years ago, Sometimes A Great Notion. I'm not necessarily a fan of logging but this had a great family plot as well! Rich and Colleen have had many challenges in life--including miscarriages-- but now have 6-year-old Chub who is adorable and smart. Colleen is a midwife who has had several "clients" with odd births--many resulting in death. Rich is a logger but there are concerns about the land and who "owns" it, what should be done with it, and what its future holds in the coming years. All of these come together in a heartwarming, heartbreaking novel that gripped me hard and kept me reading long into the night! Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

2 years ago
from Texas

Inside the logging industry

Damnation Spring is a well-written novel centering around a logging community and a family whose entire existence depends on the logging industry. When environmental issues threaten to put an end to the industry in their area, it creates much strife within the community and within the families involved. The story centers around the Gunderson family. Rich has grown up in a logging family and depends completely on the land. His wife, Colleen is a midwife and mother to their son Chub. Colleen has had eight miscarriages and longs desperately for another child. In her work as a midwife, she has begun to see unusual birth defects, such as a baby born with a severe brain defect. When an environmentalist comes into town, Colleen begins to believe the connection between the spraying and the birth defects and illnesses she has seen within the community. Naturally this puts a strain on her marriage and the relationship with her extended family. This was a very maudlin, slow-moving story, but I came to love the Gunderson family. The people in the community were hard-working and hard-living. This is not a story for readers who are looking for an uplifting read, but it was well written and I found it interesting enough to read until the end. Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read and advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review.

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

2 years ago
from Florida

Historical fiction

Damnation Spring is the story of a logging town in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s that is slowly starting to become aware of the effects of the local logging company's herbicides. Rich and Colleen Gunderson are just trying to get by and raise their only son, Chub, after a long string of miscarriages, but when Colleen's old high school sweetheart finds a link between the herbicides and the town's miscarriages and stillbirths, Colleen and Rich must make tougher choices than they've ever made before. This novel is very character-driven with a heavy focus on family drama, communal hardships, and small-town politics. It started out slow and took me a while to get into but I couldn't stop thinking about it once I had finished. I recommend if you enjoy environmental reads, familial drama, or historical fiction about logging or the Pacific Northwest. Content Warnings include Miscarriage, severe birth defects, death, violence, animal abuse, infidelity

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com