Author Maja Lunde, connected via video to the Better Future Conference in the Axel-Springer-Haus in Berlin on April 27, 2023
Source: Philip Nuremberg
The Norwegian author has now published her fourth book on climate, climate change and the relationship between humans and nature. Sustainability, utopias and dystopias also play a major role in her work.
GThe fourth volume of her climate quartet has just been published. All of the books deal with the relationship between humans and nature. Norwegian best-selling author Maja Lunde was at the Better Future Conference Leipzig Book Fair switched on, where she presented her novel “The Dream of a Tree”. It was pretty bleak in there, whether she was so despairing of the world, moderator Inga Michler wanted to know.
“Writing this new book has actually been a search for hope for me. In the last chapter, I don’t want to reveal too much here, there is hope. I found new hope in writing, so I’m not just pessimistic,” said Maja Lunde.
The next question was whether her previous four books were an expression of a certain fear or, in view of the already clearly noticeable climate change, also a call to action at last. “The stories always develop from my feelings. Write where there is a fire, let’s say in Norway. And it’s simply the biggest issue of our time. But I also write because I have a great passion and love for nature.
I try not to think about things like messages. I hope my readers will see different things in it. Apparently they do, because people keep telling me about all sorts of things that fascinate them about my books.” Does she also consider herself an activist? “I would say I wear two hats. When I write, I’m the writer, it’s all about the story. But when I talk to people, I’m actually a bit of an activist too.”
utopias and dystopias
Inga Michler wanted to know what she would give to the conference guests. “I’d like to quote Robert Swan (British historian, editor’s note) who said that the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
She also asks herself many questions, says Lunde. One is: “Are we too short-sighted and self-serving to solve the enormous problems we are dealing with?” And did you think of writing a utopia instead of dystopias, asked Michler.
“I already have, but I just can’t find any story in my material. Technology has many dark sides. Sometimes technology is the right answer, sometimes it isn’t.”
As a mother of three sons, she is also confronted with the young generation’s perspective on the climate crisis. “Luckily, they’re just kids, living normal lives, and they don’t think about stuff like that all the time. But of course, like other children and young adults, they have concerns and are angry at us adults for not doing enough to change what needs to be changed.”