Environmental Fiction

The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fable that range from antebellum New York to the late 20th-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. An air force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits 100 years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light.

The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.

Everyone knows everyone in the tiny town of Bourne, but the Mitchell triplets are especially beloved. Mirabel is the smartest person anyone knows, and no one doubts it just because she can’t speak. Monday is the town’s purveyor of books now that the library’s closed - tell her the book you think you want, and she’ll pull the one you actually do from the microwave or her sock drawer. Mab’s job is hardest of all: get good grades, get into college, get out of Bourne.

In these new essays, Williams explores the concept of erosion: of the land, of the self, of belief, of fear. She wrangles with the paradox of desert lands and the truth of erosion: What is weathered, worn, and whittled away through wind, water, and time is as powerful as what remains. Our undoing is also our becoming.

The world is clean. The world is dead. The EcoMites were humanity's greatest achievement—microscopic machines that dissolved pollution, purified water, and healed our dying planet. Then their definition of "pollution" changed. Now they consume everything organic. Everything alive. Everything except one man and his sanctuary. Dr. Joseph Kellerman is the last man on Earth, surviving alone at Alaska's Aurora Station while generators fail one by one. Outside his protective bubble, the air shimmers with invisible death. Inside, he talks to ghosts—his dead wife, his lost colleagues—as his ...

The cabin had always been a special retreat for Isherwood Williams, a haven from the demands of society. But one day while hiking, Ish was bitten by a rattlesnake, and the solitude he had so desired took on dire new significance. Ish headed home when he finally felt himself again—and noticed the strangeness almost immediately. No cars passed him on the road; the gas station not far from his cabin looked abandoned; and he was shocked to see the body of a man on the roadside near a small town. Without a radio or phone, Ish had no idea of humanity’s abrupt demise.

Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of 2021, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.

What if the fog could speak—and what if it chose you? High in the Himalayas, in the remote village of Thame, a young shepherd named Tashi stumbles upon an ancient artifact hidden in the mist—an artifact with the power to summon the Guardian Fog, a sentient force tasked with preserving the balance between nature and spirit. But when outsiders arrive in search of the artifact, bringing greed, violence, and ruin in their wake, Tashi becomes the reluctant steward of a mystical burden far beyond his imagining. As the fog whispers secrets, reveals visions, and lashes out to protect its realm,...

Today’s UV Index: Lethal Deep inside the sun, magnetic lines of force are growing…building in ways not experienced for a millennium. When a pair of increasingly severe solar storms disables internet, communications, and GPS for millions around the globe, helioseismologist Greyson Finn fears the imminent arrival of a cataclysmic super flare, a magnetic explosion of the sun with the potential to obliterate life on earth. In a desperate bid to help the world prepare, Finn and his fellow scientists rush to address the critical question: will the solar weather subside, or is the worst yet to...

Life for Roz and the animals on their island is perfect. But when mysterious, dangerous waters surround the island, the animals are forced inland to fight over dwindling resources. Roz calms and organizes the animals, but the poison tide takes a terrible toll on the island. So the wild robot sets out across the ocean, determined to stop the poison tide. During her journey, Roz encounters amazing geological formations and incredible creatures, and she sees the devastation caused by the toxic waters. Can the wild robot save the ocean and her island and everything she loves?

The invasive species…is us. Humanity teeters on the precipice of environmental collapse. The planet bears the scars of exponential warming, rampant pollution, and the ominous specter of mass extinctions on land and sea. Drought, wildfires, flooding, and storms wreak havoc, while the dire consequences of poverty and starvation deepen. As Earth's systems spiral towards irreversible decline, the President of the United States makes an audacious move, appointing an unlikely ally, an obscure park ranger, as the new Secretary of Conservation. Unbeknownst to the world, he is not only an outsider...

“Brilliantly written! Dystopian thriller packed with humor, heart, and horror. Eight charity volunteers go on a macabre journey and confront the most consequential moral message of our time. They must decide whether to embrace it or hide out at a mattress store in a Baltimore mini-mall.” – Bruce Goldberg, best-selling author “Original! Funny! Surprising! A wake-up call for a world that has gone astray.” – Cynthia Shortreed, editor “An imaginative sci-fi masterpiece with unexpected twists and turns. It forces you to rethink your values. You’ll never look at life, compassion, ...

In a world reborn under the light of innovation and the harmony of nature, Jay, a humble solar farmer, finds his life thrust into chaos when legendary warriors descend from the skies, bringing ancient prophecies and dire warnings. Tasked with a destiny far beyond his fields of solar panels, Jay must embark on an epic journey filled with peril, courage, and self-discovery. Joined by the wise chronomancer Malazar and the fierce, technologically advanced Chimerians, Jay faces formidable challenges—from the deceptive sands of Zephyr’s Embrace to the haunting melodies of the Starlit River. ...

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.

This near-future trilogy is the first chance for English-speaking listeners to experience this multiple-award-winning phenomenon from Cixin Liu, China's most beloved science fiction author. In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion - in just four centuries' time. The aliens' human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are totally exposed to the enemy.

A Friend of the Earth opens in the year 2025, as Tyrone O'Shaughnessy Tidewater ekes out a bleak living in southern California, managing a rock star's private menagerie. Global warming is a reality. The biosphere has collapsed and most of the major mammalian species are extinct.

In the isolated mountains of Coventry Ridge, where fog-shrouded forests hide generations of secrets, former FBI profiler Alex Harlan returns to his hometown after a five-year absence, drawn back by a murder bearing haunting similarities to his mother's unsolved death decades earlier. What begins as a reluctant consultation with local sheriff Maggie Blackburn evolves into something far more sinister, revealing connections between the recent killings and powerful interests operating in the shadows of the Appalachian ridges. When the mutilated body of a local man is discovered along a remote ...

A dystopian rainforest. A forbidden dream. A monkey willing to risk everything. The Monkey State is a satirical, thought-provoking tale set in Tierra Libre, a fantasy world of talking animals, relentless rain and absolute control. What happens when creativity is outlawed, dreams are dangerous, and “No Monkey Business” is the law of the land? Blending playful allegory with authoritarian themes, it asks big questions about escape, resistance and the courage to imagine something better. At turns darkly comic and deeply hopeful, it offers a fresh twist on the tradition of 1984, Planet of ...

A satisfying tale of honor, chance, and star-crossed love infused with Southern wit, grace, and charm - the story of two old Southern families. The Langleys have more money than the Morgan Stanley Bank. And they think they have more class. The Barrett family made their 19th-century fortune in a less distinguished manner: corner grocery stores and liquor stores.

Love is a four-letter word. Edgy romantic suspense thriller, Enter the Upperground continues where The Lie That Binds leaves off. Ehra stumbles on a secret society of unmatched people passing as Omeo, even as her second-class status stymies her every turn. With her constant questions, “Uppergrounder” Hami challenges everything Ehra knows about the world and herself. Mamara’s increasing volatility and an unexpected death thrusts Ehra into uncertainty. She is further devastated by Hami’s dangerous declaration of love. When Ehra receives a message from her father that could upend Omeo ...