McSweeney's Issue 58 : 2040 AD - Climate Fiction edition

by Claire Boyle (Editor)

Other authorsLuis Alberto Urrea (Contributor), Dave Eggers (Editor), Elif Shafak (Contributor), Wesley Allsbrook (Illustrator), Tommy Orange (Contributor)
Hardcover, 2019

Library's rating

Publication

McSweeney's Quarterly Concern (2019), 184 pagina's

Physical description

184 p.; 7.3 inches

ISBN

1944211705 / 9781944211707

Language

Collection

Description

Spanning six continents and nine countries--from metropolitan Mexico City to the crumbling ancient aqueducts of Turkey, the receding coastline of Singapore to the coral shores of northern Australia--McSweeney's 58 is wholly focused on climate change, with speculative fiction from ten contributors, made in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Global in scope, each story is set in the year 2040 and imagines what the world might look like if the dire warnings issued by the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C were to come true. Using fiction--informed here and there by realism and climate science--this issue explores the tangible, day-to-day implications of these cataclysmic scientific projections. Featuring Tommy Orange, Elif Shafak, Luis Alberto Urrea, Asja Bakic, Rachel Heng, and others, with gorgeous full-color illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook. From the issue's introduction by Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, Chief Program Officer of the NRDC: "Each story in this special issue is the product of a unique collaboration between its author and an NRDC policy expert with specialized knowledge of how climate change is already affecting the world, and how it could continue to affect the world in the decades to come. The result, we hope, is a collection where fiction's already considerable power is fortified by science." Featuring original stories by: Tommy Orange Claire G. Coleman Birna Anna Björnsdóttir Luis Alberto Urrea Elif Shafak Abbey Mei Otis Asja Bakić Rachel Heng Kanishk Tharoor Mikael Awake… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member gbill
The heart is in the right place and this collection of short stories about global warming set in 2040 is certainly relevant, but unfortunately the quality of the writing is uneven. My favorite was ‘The Night Drinker’ by Luis Alberto Urrea, with runners up ‘He Are the People’ by Elif Shafak
Show More
and ‘Save Yourself’ by Abbey Mei Otis. As for the other seven stories from writers around the world, it was unfortunately slim pickings.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RobertOK
Beginning with an introduction by the Chief Program Officer of the Natural Resources Defense Council, ten contemporary writers write stories about what life might look like in 2040 if we don't act very quickly to curb the warming of the atmosphere. In general, there's a lot of gloom and doom here:
Show More
flooding, fires, crop failure, human migration taxing resources of places less susceptible to change, including life in underground bunkers. Each story takes place in a different global location the author has some connection to. A highlight was "The Night Drinker" by Luis Alberto Urrea, in which the ancient Aztec gods return to Mexico City to deliver fiery destruction.
This thin hardcover has striking cover art depicting more natural calamities than a Hollywood disaster movie.
Show Less
Page: 0.0993 seconds