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

"A must-read ecological message of hope . . . Everyone with an interest in the future of this planet should read this book." --David Mitchell, The Guardian

When climate activist Greta Thunberg was eleven, her parents Malena and Svante, and her little sister Beata, were facing a crisis in their own home. Greta had stopped eating and speaking, and her mother and father had reconfigured their lives to care for her. Desperate and searching for answers, her parents discovered what was at the heart of Greta's distress: her imperiled future on a rapidly heating planet.

Steered by Greta's determination to understand the truth and generate change, they began to see the deep connections between their own suffering and the planet's. Written by a remarkable family and told through the voice of an iconoclastic mother, Our House Is on Fire is the story of how they fought their problems at home by taking global action. And it is the story of how Greta decided to go on strike from school, igniting a worldwide rebellion.

Review: "[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." -The New Republic

"An urgent, lucid, courageous account. . . . [E]veryone 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." -The 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." -The Telegraph (UK)

"A book about finding purpose as a route to recovery." -Sunday Times (UK)

"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 awakening 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