‘Destroy the land and sea, we destroy ourselves.’ On the remote coast of New Zealand, at the curve that binds land and sea, a small Maori community live, work, fish, play and tell stories of their ancestors. This novel was republished in February 2020 by Penguin Classics and was featured […]
Read MoreThe Unpassing, Chia-Chia Lin
With flowing prose that evokes the terrifying beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, Lin explores the fallout after the loss of a child and the way in which a family is forced to grieve in a place that doesn’t yet feel like home. Emotionally raw and subtly suspenseful, The Unpassing is […]
Read MoreSharks in the Time of Saviours, Kawai Strong Washburn
In 1994 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores is saved from drowning by a shiver of sharks. His family, struggling to make ends meet amidst the collapse of the sugar cane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favour from ancient Hawaiian gods. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads
Read MoreGod Shot, Chelsea Bieker
Drought has settled on the town of Peaches, California. The area of the Central Valley where fourteen-year-old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise. Now it’s an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms. In their desperation, residents have turned to […]
Read MoreSassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, Ntozake Shange
As with many ecofeminist novels, the structure is not linear and contains many asides, recipes, spells, letters and other ephemera. Shange explores the relationship between the main characters and their homeland, South Carolina, as well as their more distant connection to Africa through the Black Arts Movement. –Carnegie Library Goodreads […]
Read MoreSea Change, Nancy Kress
In this near-future environmental thriller, rebels who research genetically modified plants try to discover the government mole who is betraying their work. –Milwaukee Journal Sentinal Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads
Read MorePani Mar Raha Hai, Amna Mufti
With her latest novel on water crisis, “Paani Mar Raha Hai”, Mufti has not only contributed to the bourgeoning field of Literary Environmental Studies, but has also proven that creative writers are not always oblivious to their surroundings. –Daily Times, Pakistan Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads
Read MoreThe Bear, Andrew Krivak
Click here to return to the series This May, the world eco-fiction series travels back to North America as I talk with Andrew Krivak, author of The Bear. Andrew tells me that though the entire setting is fictional, the landscape of the novel was inspired by the mountains and woods […]
Read MoreThe Yield, Tara June Winch
Profoundly moving and exquisitely written, Tara June Winch’s The Yield is the story of a people and a culture dispossessed. But it is as much a celebration of what was and what endures, and a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling and identity. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads
Read MoreA Children’s Bible, Lydia Millet
In an age where the young justifiably blame the old for the devastation of the planet, this dystopian tale of youthful alienation and environmental apocalypse resonated deeply with me…The story, narrated by the sharp-eyed, cynical Eve, grabbed me from the first paragraph and didn’t let go. While I was sometimes […]
Read MoreIf We Were Giants, Clete Barrett Smith and Dave Matthews
For May’s Turning the Tide spotlight, I was thrilled to ask Clete Barrett Smith about his work with Dave Matthews (yes, that Dave Matthews) on their new children’s book If We Were Giants. Just published a couple months ago, this book is aimed toward a middle-grade audience, but all ages […]
Read MoreAugust 9 – Our 8th Anniversary & Survey Results!
Though this site was in the makings in July of 2013, the first post was August 9th that year. Even that earlier material was a continuation of a list of novels I had already published at BC Rainforest (which is no longer in existence). I had no idea back then […]
Read MoreThe Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson
From the visionary, New York Times bestselling author of New York 2140 comes a near-future novel that is a gripping exploration of climate change, technology, politics, and the human behaviors that drive these forces. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads
Read MoreStay and Fight, Madeline Ffitch
Set in a region known for its independent spirit, Stay and Fight shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system. It is a protest novel that challenges our notions of effective action. It is a […]
Read MoreDeep River, Karl Marlantes
Layered with fascinating historical detail, this is a novel that breathes deeply of the sun-dappled forest and bears witness to the stump-ridden fields the loggers, and the first waves of modernity, leave behind. At its heart, Deep River is an extraordinarily ambitious exploration of the place of the individual, and […]
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