On Time and Water

Eco-lit needs more attention, and devotees will be pleased to discover a new addition from the Icelandic author Andri Snaer Magnason, who writes with a Seussian mix of wonder, wit and gravitas ... immensely satisfying.New York TimesLonglisted for the 2022 National Translation AwardFinalist for the 2021 Nordic Council Literature PrizeA Winnipeg Free Press Top Read of 2021Asked by a leading climate scientist why he wasnt writing about the greatest crisis mankind has faced, Andri Snr Magnason, one of Icelands most beloved writers and public intellectuals, protested: he wasnt a specialist, he said. It wasnt his field. But the scientist persisted: If you cannot understand our scientific findings and present them in an emotional, psychological, poetic or mythological context, he told him, then no one will really understand the issue, and the world will end.Based on interviews and advice from leading glacial, ocean, climate, and geographical scientists, and interwoven with personal, historical, and mythological stories, Magnasons resulting response is a rich and compelling work of narrative nonfiction that illustrates the reality of climate change and offers hope in the face of an uncertain future. Moving from reflections on how one writes an obituary for a glacier to exhortation for a heightened understanding of human time and our obligations to one another, throughout history and across the globe, On Time and Water is both deeply personal and globally minded: a travel story, a world history, a desperate plea to live in harmony with future generationsand is unlike anything that has yet been published on the current climate emergency.