Paul Kingsnorth’s Buckmaster trilogy, a much looser series, also draws to a close this year. It began in 2014 with The Wake, an extraordinary book written in a mongrel form of Old English and set in the aftermath of the Norman invasion; the final volume, Alexandria (Faber, May), fast-forwards to “the far side […]
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The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, Michael Zapata
Through litanies of the names of overlooked poets and science fiction writers of color, through multiple survival stories from New Orleanians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, through deep and heartbreaking asides about Argentinian and Bolshevik revolutionaries, Zapata shows that the multiverses we crave are contained within each person, each […]
Read MoreThe Last Wave, Pankaj Sekhsaria
Ever the aimless drifter, Harish finds the anchor his life needs in a chance encounter with members of the ancient and threatened – Jarawa community-the ‘original people’ of the Andaman Islands and its tropical rain forests. As he observes the slow but sure destruction of everything the Jarawa require for […]
Read MoreThe Wild Lands, Paul Greci
In Paul Greci’s The Wild Lands, Travis and his sister are trapped in a daily race to survive–and there is no second place. Natural disasters and a breakdown of civilization have cut off Alaska from the world and destroyed its landscape. Now, as food runs out and the few who […]
Read MoreThe Vanished Birds, Simon Jimenez
A hundred years from now, a starship engineer named Fumiko works to design starships that will help lift humanity away from a climate change-ravaged Earth… –Polygon Vanished Birds is a mysterious science fiction tale bathed in beautiful prose that offers glimpses of a future of seasons changing, stars within reach, […]
Read MoreWeather, Jenny Offill
The mammoth threat of climate change looms large over the ephemera of modern life in this novel filled with dread and humour. –Esquire From the author of the nationwide best seller Dept. of Speculation–one of the New York Times Book Review‘s Ten Best Books of the Year–a shimmering tour de […]
Read MoreDisappearing Earth: A Novel, Julia Phillips
Click here to return to the series This month’s spotlight goes to a country not showcased before in the world eco-fiction series: Russia, specifically the Kamchatka peninsula, which dips down from the far eastern coastline of the country and lies between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. It […]
Read MoreStrange Birds, Celia C. Pérez
Selected as one of our January features for Turning the Tide: The Youngest Generation, Strange Birds: a field guide to ruffling feathers is Florida-based juvenile fiction. Abstract: After Ofelia, Aster, Cat, and Lane fail to persuade a local girls club to change an outdated tradition, they form an alternative group […]
Read MoreSplit Tooth, Tanya Taqaq
This book is being read and discussed at the Cambridge Ecofiction Bookclub in January 2020. According to Goodreads, Veering back and forth between the grittiest features of a small arctic town, the electrifying proximity of the world of animals, and ravishing world of myth, Tanya Tagaq explores a world where […]
Read MoreA Daily Post on Winter Literature & Arts
Join us over at Facebook for a post-a-day as we count down to January 1, with articles exploring wintry nature in storytelling. Featured image: By Source, Fair use
Read MoreSool, Cho Dharman
According to Times India, Tamil writer Cho Dharman won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2019. The novel is a “burning portrait of the environmental and ecological disaster in Tamil Nadu.” The story takes place in Urulaikkudi, the native village of Mr. Dharman, and he has captured the destruction of the […]
Read MoreShadow Flicker, Melissa Volker
Click here to return to the series About the Book It’s coming on winter, yet I’m heading into warm sunshine, surf, and sand–with my mind freshly ensconced in Melissa Volker’s novel Shadow Flicker (Karavan Press, 2019), which immersed me into beautiful east South African beaches and surfing life. Despite the […]
Read MoreKlimakvartetten Series, Maja Lunde
We originally posted The History of Bees in June 2017 and then updated this post in December 2019 with the second two books in the Klimakvartetten series. In the spirit of Station Eleven and Never Let Me Go, this dazzling and ambitious literary debut follows three generations of beekeepers from […]
Read MoreGhost Species, James Bradley
We originally published this news on October 25, 2019: James Bradley tweeted the cover reveal of his May 2020 novel, Ghost Species. See below. Update: The book is now listed at Goodreads. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads Delighted to reveal the cover of my new novel, Ghost Species. Out May […]
Read MoreTop Ten Ecologically Oriented Novels & Films of the Decade
Welcome to the first day of December in a changing world. No blue hinges the sky. It’s all gray and cold and still as I write. A soft snow begins to fall. Cedars stand like sentinels. Crows call to each other. Grass is still green but covered in frost. I […]
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