DAMNATION SPRING

Big business, protesters, and working-class loggers clash in this environmentally savvy debut.

Davidson’s novel takes place in Northern California forest territory between 1977 and 1978, as Rich Gundersen, a fourth-generation logger, is poised to make a big profit: He’s just purchased a stretch of land full of old-growth redwoods whose sale could provide security for his family, which is smaller than he’d like; he and his wife, Colleen, have one son, Graham (nicknamed Chub), but as the story opens she’s just had another in a string of miscarriages. Other crises soon emerge. Anti-logging protesters are trying to halt work and are suspected of having left a child’s skull in the forest to prompt an investigation. Colleen, a midwife, witnesses an increase in stillbirths, many with serious deformations. Daniel, a researcher and Colleen’s ex-boyfriend, suspects chemicals sprayed by the timber company are responsible, but any delay to investigate threatens Rich’s plans to cut down and sell the redwoods. Davidson researched this milieu deeply but with an eye toward making every discovery feel natural and unforced. By shifting perspectives among Rich, Colleen, and Chub, she reveals not just the conflicts among loggers, protesters, and companies, but the growing stress within the family. The family of Colleen’s sister, Enid, whose husband is working an illicit tree-poaching scam, adds another layer of tension. (And Colleen can’t help but resent that Enid’s brood is ever growing: “Enid uncrosses her legs for two minutes and a baby pops out.”) As thoughtfully as Davidson establishes these dilemmas, she’s equally skilled at writing an outdoorsy adventure novel in which logging threatens the lives of workers with snapped cables and everybody else via landslides. Thematically, it’s a strong work of climate fiction, but it's rooted in age-old man-versus-nature storytelling.

An impressively well-turned story about how environmental damage creeps into our bodies, psyches, and economies.