Climate Fiction Reading Group
A growing number of literary fiction is using climate change as a central theme. We meet once a month at Biskopshuset for a breakfast seminar to explore how climate change is lived, approached, and told. Taking the novel as a starting point we delve into topics on why it is difficult to let go of the known, on loss, anger and grief, and desirable visions of a future. Anyone interested is welcome but registration is mandatory. We have a few copies of each novel that you can borrow, first come first served.
Whether we humans are best motivated by fear of an impending apocalypse or if we rather need hope and visions of a better future is a recurring discussion among climate activists, journalists and researchers of many fields. This has been frequently discussed in this book club as well and for anyone interested in joining the discussion, this spring will be a perfect opportunity as every other story (or collection of stories) below is hopeful and every other story is one of doom.
Because of the ongoing pandemic seminars will be held online. The seminars start at 8:30 and end around 10:00. To attend you have to register, follow the links below to do so.
23 February: Sunvault, a collection of solarpunk short stories. Edited by Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher
23 March: The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada
27 April: Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
25 May: The Wall, John Lanchester
Books we have read
Autumn 2020
The Overstory, Richard Powers
Wolf Totem, Jiang Rong
Of Ants and Dinosaurs, Liu Cixin
Year of the Drought, Roland Buti
Spring 2020
American War, Omar El Akkad
Tentacle, Rita Indiana
Gun Island, Amitav Ghosh
Bangkok Wakes to Rain, Pitchaya Sudbanthad
Autumn 2019
Floodland, Marcus Sedgwick
Green Earth, Kim Stanley Robinson
The Swan Book, Alexis Wright
Walkaway, Cory Doctorow
The Sands of Sarasvati, Risto Isomäki
Spring 2019
Blå, Maja Lunde
Gold Fame Citrus, Claire Vaye Watkins
Slutet, Mats Strandberg
What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, Lesley Nneka Arimah
The Floating World, Morgan C. Babst
Autumn 2018
History of Bees, Maja Lunde
Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver
New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson
Annihilation, Jeff Vandermeer
Do you want to read any of the titles listed above? You can borrow them from our library if you work or live close to Lund. Just send an e-mail to Alexandra Nikoleris.