Nordic climate fiction: About the books written by Emmi Itäranta and Jens Liljestrand

The forests are burning, the planet is dying, man is fleeing, but he is still alive. But at what cost? Swedish translator Hana Švolbová and Finnish translator Michal Švec will present Nordic novels set in the not-so-friendly near and distant future, in which the effects of climate change are fully manifested.

Finnish writer Emmi Itäranta is known to Czech readers as the author of the lyrical dystopia Memory of Water. In her latest novel, The Moonday Letters (Kniha Zlín, 2024), a devastated Earth is a shadow of its former glory, its population languishing, its privileged people inhabiting rich space colonies. Is there hope for restoring the balance of Earth’s ecosystems? In Swedish author Jens Liljestrand‘s Even If Everything Ends (Host, 2023), the world is in flames. Despite the raging inferno, life goes on as if nothing had happened. Will climate change also have an impact on everyday worries and personal relationship crises?

The debate is moderated by Jitka Jindřišková from The Scandinavian House.

Free entry

The event is part of the year-long project Nordic Literature in the Heart of Europe 2024, which is supported by the Prague City Hall and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.