Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis

Description

A profoundly moving story of how love, courage and determination brought a family back from the brink This is the story of a happy family whose life suddenly fell apart, never to be the same again. Of two devoted parents plunged into a waking nightmare as their eleven-year-old daughter stopped speaking and eating, and her younger sister struggled to cope. This crisis was not theirs alone- they were burned-out people on a burned-out planet. Our House is on Fire is the story of how one family found ways to strengthen, heal, and gain courage from the love they had for each other - and for the living world. It is a parable of hope and determination in an emergency that affects us all.

Greta Thunberg is a climate crisis activist from Sweden. In August 2018, she decided not to go to school one day, starting a strike outside the Swedish Parliament. Her actions sparked a global movement to fight the climate crisis, inspiring millions of students to go on strike for our planet. Greta has Asperger's and considers it a gift which has enabled her to see the climate crisis in "black and white." She has won the prestigious Prix Liberte, has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and was selected as Time's Person of the Year in 2019. She is the author of the bestseller No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. Together with her mother, the celebrated opera singer Malena Ernman, her sister, Beata Ernman, and her father, Svante Thunberg, she has dedicated her life to protecting the living planet.

Our House Is on Fire feels like a new form of nonfiction, intimate and approachable as a photo album: a family memoir. . . . This is also a remarkable story of togetherness: a modern family shifting and pivoting to keep each person afloat. * New Republic * An urgent, lucid, courageous account. . . . Everyone with an interest in the future of the planet should read this book. It is a clear-headed diagnosis. It is a glimpse of a saner world. It is fertile with hope. -- David Mitchell * Guardian * An extraordinary account of how one family rose, with unshakable moral clarity, to the tremendous responsibility of being alive at the moment when our immediate collective decisions will determine the fate of life on Earth. They share their story of courage not because they want our accolades, but because they demand our company. Greta Thunberg has already inspired a global moment--this book is part of how we will win. -- Naomi Klein A surprisingly funny and optimistic book. Thunberg and her family might be screaming 'FIRE' on a crowded planet. But they believe we have the power to put that fire out if we act, right here, right now. -- Telegraph A book about finding purpose as a route to recovery. * Sunday Telegraph * This blazingly candid family memoir reveals the grueling and bewildering struggles that propelled Greta onto the world stage. . . . An unnerving and profoundly enlightening chronicle of the symbiosis between human and planetary health as manifest within one remarkable family whose painful awakeniThis blazingly candid family memoir reveals the grueling and bewildering struggles that propelled Greta onto the world stage. . . . An unnerving and profoundly enlightening chronicle of the symbiosis between human and planetary health as manifest within one remarkable family whose painful awakening to our 'acute sustainability crisis' should embolden us all.ng to our 'acute sustainability crisis' should embolden us all. * Booklist (starred review) * An impassioned call to action and a vulnerable family portrait of neurodiversity. * Kirkus *