CLIMATE THREAT, LACK OF FRESHWATER AND SUPERNATURAL POWERS IN FOCUS
What happens when we can sell water for 500 SEK a litre? That’s the question the poet and author Mats Söderlund wants us to ask ourselves. For the characters in his YA novel The Threat that’s a reality.
With the trilogy The Descendants Mats Söderlund brings together a story about the climate and its conflicts, and the fantastic fantasy. It’s something between folktale and fantasy. Something from Selma Lagerlöf to Hunger Games.
The Threat is the first part in a trilogy set in an imminent future where climate disasters have become part of everyday life and where the lack of water leads to war. Sweden and Finland are the new, water-owning superpowers and migrant workers from mainland Europe travel to the north. The digital flux is constantly present and every little action or event is registered and logged. Yet there is an ancient secret hidden among all of this: a secret that may threaten the entire humanity. And not only the human race…
Environmental issues have always been important to Mats Söderlund and he hopes that The Threat and the entire trilogy can be an alarm clock for others, especially the younger readers. Söderlund paints a frightening and credible image of a time that may only be a couple of generations away and raises crucial questions about the environment and ethics. Fantasy can be a way of remystifying life, since many of us are so far away from nature; people grow up in big cities and far away from the wilderness. Fantasy could be a possible way of getting back to nature, Söderlund says.
If you want to discuss with others after reading this great and captivating novel, The Descendants have their own Facebook page where the conversation can continue.
Follow the Instagram account Ättlingarna to enjoy behind-the-scenes photos and news updates related to climate change and this spectacular global story.
You can buy The Threat here, here or here or in bookstores around Sweden.
