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Jens Liljestrand "The Beginning of Tomorrow": Depressing climate novel

2022-09-21T19:08:55.467Z


Jens Liljestrand "The Beginning of Tomorrow": Depressing climate novel Created: 09/21/2022, 21:00 By: Sven Trautwein Climate as novel material. A novel can hardly be more topical. With “The Beginning of Tomorrow”, Jens Liljestrand presents a depressing cli-fi novel. My book tip. Note to our readers:  If you make a purchase via the links included, we receive a commission from partners. This cha


Jens Liljestrand "The Beginning of Tomorrow": Depressing climate novel

Created: 09/21/2022, 21:00

By: Sven Trautwein

Climate as novel material.

A novel can hardly be more topical.

With “The Beginning of Tomorrow”, Jens Liljestrand presents a depressing cli-fi novel.

My book tip.

Note to our readers:

 If you make a purchase via the links included, we receive a commission from partners.

This changes nothing for you.

The first novel by well-known culture journalist Jens Liljestrand is anything but easy reading.

No, it's not the more than 500 pages of hardcover, but the topic he deals with in the book: our climate.

It should already be clear to many that we humans have arrived at a crossroads.

In his novel, the characters experience their own personal doomsday scenario.

Jens Liljestrand "The beginning of tomorrow": About the book

Cover of the climate novel “The Beginning of Tomorrow” by Jens Liljestrand © S. Fischer

The whole country is groaning with heat and drought.

Forest fires get out of control and villages are evacuated.

Four people, linked by fate, are suddenly fighting for their future: Didrik has to save his family from the fires.

Melissa can no longer hide on the internet.

André's anger grows.

And Vilja experiences for the first time that it also depends on her.

Up close and honest, Jens Liljestrand tells a captivating story about the pressing question of our time: Can we save the world and live on together?

S Fisher

The novel hits the ground running.

No preliminary banter, no slow build-up of tension.

PR consultant Didrik has to flee with his family from the holiday home in Sweden because of the ever-increasing forest fires.

He gradually lost his children and wife.

Only with his little baby does he make it back to Stockholm, to his ex-lover's temporary apartment.

The other three main characters of the novel, Melissa, André and Vilja, also gradually have their say and form the framework of the climate novel.

The many translators who were involved in the novel are exciting.

From the second part, they give the individual characters of the novel their very own voice.

All four characters deal differently with the fires and the resulting events.

In the foreground are the very personal experiences and world views that each of us knows.

Liljestrand manages the balancing act through the different age groups of the characters.

How everything is connected in the end and whether there is a common solution remains to be seen.

Liljestrand started the novel in 2019.

The climatic developments have now caught up with him and therefore make the novel even more haunting.

What science says about this if global warming continues like this can be read in the non-fiction book "3 degrees more".

Jens Liljestrand "The beginning of tomorrow": My conclusion

The novel lasts one week, in which four different people experience the effects of the climate crisis and try to figure it out on their own.

Whether you're a strategic thinker or a doubter - the most varied considerations of the characters are not alien to me as a reader.

They all hope that things won't really get that bad.

We will see.

also read

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Book tips fall 2022: Six books you should read

Jens Liljestrand "The Beginning of Tomorrow"

Translated from Swedish by Thorsten Alms, Karoline Hippe, Franziska Hüther, Stefanie Werner

2022 S. Fischer, ISBN-13 978-3-103-97190-3

Price: hardcover €24, e-book €18.99, 544 pages (different format) – Order now (promotional link)

Jens Liljestrand

Jens Liljestrand is a well-known Swedish cultural journalist, literary critic and author.

He has received several awards for his works.

His first novel, "The Beginning of Tomorrow", also met with an overwhelming response internationally.

Jens Liljestrand has been writing about climate change and the possible consequences for us humans for years.

The idea of ​​delving into the subject with a novel came about when he wanted to show his children a coral reef that no longer existed.

Working on this book was also a way for Liljestrand to get out of her own crippling climate scare.

Source: merkur

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