Climate Crossroads : Literature’s Encounter with a Planet on Fire

Why are activists throwing soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers? What associations does the poisonous brown recluse spider have with a centuries old myth from the Sundarbans? How does an ancient Chinese calligrapher’s recording of snowfall on his way home connect with Indian farmers marching for justice in Delhi or Mumbai? In The Climate Crossroads, the author weaves his own journey as a writer of critically acclaimed climate stories and environmental activist with personal anecdotes, literary theory, philosophy, history, and art, presenting a multi-faceted portrayal of literature’s ongoing encounter with climate change.

Blending engaging storytelling with lucid analysis of a few important climate novels, the book explores how stories help us comprehend this existential crisis and prepare ourselves to experience the unimaginable. Underpinned by strong theoretical foundations which range from Kantian ethics to the Freudian uncanny, and presented with a medley of visualisations, the book reveals the hidden dynamics between planet, politics and literary art as it bears witness to literature’s quest for meaning in unprecedented times.