Jan says, Hailed as the International Literary Event of the Year, this book is the epitome of the relatively new genre of CLI-FI (climate fiction). As a fan of Swedish fiction, I found the descriptions of the Swedish countryside interesting, but the book is rather chilling in its blunt forecast of climate crises and the events that will affect daily lives of some but not others. The four main characters are memorable, but I didn’t find them especially likeable. However, I definitely recommend the book as a great read. The editor described the book as, “if Jonathan Franzen and Greta Thunberg wrote a novel together.” Put this on your “to be read” list when it comes out in May. (Note: cover photo is not yet available.)
Life goes on in the face of a climate crisis in this astonishing and unforgettable debut novel that follows four characters as they struggle to survive in a burning world.
Even when the climate crisis escalates beyond our worst nightmares and people become refugees, the world keeps turning and life carries on as usual: teenaged love stories, marital collapses, identity crises, and revolts against hopeless parents continue to play out.
Didrik is a forty-year-old media consultant whose misguided efforts to become the family hero render him a pathetic vision of masculine incompetence. Melissa is an influencer with a suitcase full of lost dreams after denying climate change for years. André is the nineteen-year-old loser son of an international sports star who uses the erupting violence around him to orchestrate his own personal vengeance on his negligent father. And Vilja is Didrik’s teenaged daughter who steps into a leadership role in the face of adult ineptitude.
“Simultaneously nerve-wracking, astute, and consumedly entertaining” (Sydsvenskan, Sweden) and through these four related stories, Even If Everything Ends eloquently illustrates a picture of a very near future that is at once extraordinary and entirely realistic.
