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Jan 25, 2023Liked by Gavin Lamb

Hi Gavin! Linnea here, from the emerging Scandinavian Association of Ecolinguistics (was that what we decided to call it?). Nice to read your newsletter, as always. Special thanks for the recommendation about the novel Hollow Kingdom. I'll put it on my reading list!

For my part, I've enjoyed reading the first three books of the Norwegian author Maja Lunde's Climate Quartet (and the last one just came out in Norwegian). These novels are set in several times – historical, contemporary and future – including a kind of post-apocalyptic world that puts our times in a horrible light.

I've read a couple of other post-(climate-)apocalyptic novels – I might also mention The Wall by John Lanchester, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy – and I think they all provide useful and chilling perspective on the imminent crisis.

However, my best recommendation is Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future, which I'm currently reading. It's set in the 2030s and later, after a lethal heatwave, and it deals with politics and activism in addition to just describing the horrors of unsustainable development. Thereby it suggests a couple of ideas of how to actually stave off the crisis. Quite an inspiring read!

Good luck with your ambitious reading goal (I'm happy if I manage to read 20–30 books per year – in total; including Harry Potter with my nine-year-old!).

Thanks for your work with the newsletter. I learn so much from it.

Best,

Linnea

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