Forces of Nature is a story of human arrogance, and nature's resilience.

When the forces of nature make their first move in a small town on the north-west shore of Lake Superior, no one notices.

No one but Lily.

She watches the seemingly benign developments as wildflowers invade her neighbour’s tidy lakefront lawn. Behind the first step in this process of natural succession she senses the endless patience of the surrounding boreal forest, which never gives up trying to reclaim what it has lost. Then she learns that an environmental spill has forced the closure of the gold mine, her neighbour's employer.

As the resource dependent economy nosedives,Lily joins a group with plans to establish an eco tourism business based in her neighbour’s abandoned house, and the group members enlist her help to speed up the return of the forest. Her husband Gus, who works in the municipality’s planning department, focuses on more traditional ways to reverse the economic downturn, but comes up against unscrupulous investors who prey on the vulnerable town.

Gus begins to question conventional visions of the town’s future, while Lily's commitment to wild things is tested by hard realities. Then nature, which has been slowly reclaiming other abandoned properties around town, loses its patience, and tests them with forces more formidable than natural succession.

Readers of Canadian literature, and those who know, or would like to know, the lakes and forests of the Canadian Shield, will enjoy this story of two ordinary people who are challenged to resolve the conflicts between the economy and the environment which emerge in their town and their relationship.