From Here by Daniel Kramb is a cli-fi novel filled with an abundance of climate themes. It’s a book about love, bravery, activism, and trying to make a difference in a world on fire. It’s a great example of how climate can drive the plot of a novel. Please note the following review contains spoilers.
What is From Here about?
“Everyone was right: Humanity will not think and change and turn and whoever says otherwise is either a good liar or a goddamn fool.”
From Here is a story about the protagonist, Anna, who is part of a climate activist group. This group also includes the leader, the brain, the fashionista, and the ex-banker. Anna has also recently fallen in love and realises she feels differently about this man, who happens to be involved with politics, and therefore ‘part of the problem’ in hindering climate action.
Their love has twists and turns, before it’s uprooted when Anna finds out that he has cheated on her with ‘the leader’ of the climate group. But all is not quite as it seems. He has also been hiding another secret from Anna, one that shapes this as a leading example of climate activism literature.
The activists feel like they need to be doing more to bring about climate action, and even hold a protest near Parliament. But, this doesn’t generate the outcome they wanted. Unbeknownst to the group, the brain, who is reluctant to take part in activism, actually partners up with Anna’s love interest to hold the most audacious protest. It’s this protest which ignites similar calls for climate action around the world.
At the end of the novel, we learn what happened to Anna and her boyfriend, in a perspective written in 2063, which brings a neat closure to the story.
From Here as a cli-fi novel
“Why is it that an entire generation of politicians around the world has discarded political courage as if that was the prerequisite for becoming a politician in the first place – why, why, why?”
There are many climate themes running through this novel, and given that it was published in 2012, it almost feels a little bit ahead of its time. A few examples of climate themes include:
- The story revolves around a group of five climate activists, who not only discuss the extent of the issue, but also take part in activism to raise awareness of the climate emergency. In a way, this feels like a precursor to ER.
- The activists comprise a fairly broad spectrum and include an ex-banker, and a fashionista, which makes the case that we need everyone for this fight.
- We see a stark contrast in attitudes between the group of activists, and Anna’s flatmates, who aren’t climate-aware and therefore don’t understand the need for urgent action. On one side there is grief and despair, and on the other, complete indifference.
- However, we also see how opinions can change by having difficult climate conversations with people, which is how Anna managed to shift her flatmates’ opinion. It may be uncomfortable, but it’s also necessary to have these climate talks.
- Through Anna and her boyfriend, we see up close the challenge of trying to be happy, live a ‘normal’ life, and experience love, in a world of climate chaos.
- Anna’s boyfriend, who is involved in politics at a low level, makes all the usual excuses that politicians make. This is useful, because it enables the activists to counter those responses and will hopefully inform readers about how politicians have kicked the can down the road (“They’ve become pretty good at paying lip service, that’s all…”). A fairly recent example of which was what happened at COP28.
- The novel also touches on how lobbyists have influenced societal understanding of the issue, and sown denial and scepticism into the mainstream (“So exorbitant were the sums of money that had flown, for years, from industries and individuals with stakes in the status quo so high it wasn’t surprising they were prepared to pay them; so shocking were the levels of sheer corruption; so obvious was the self-interest behind every sentence of denial ever uttered, public opinion finally, and forever swung against those who fabricated discord where it had no place. Abusing the term sceptical for no one’s benefit, but their own.”).
- It neatly touches on the outrageous levels of subsidies that fossil fuel companies receive (“Not to mention the billions in worldwide subsidies and tax breaks that still have the fossil fuel industry’s bosses scream Hallelujah all the way to their next shareholder meeting”).
- The novel also makes the case that we can’t wait for everyone to become green saints before pushing for climate action. We have to accept that people are where they are, and begin fighting from there. This feels quite important, because cognitive dissonance may hamper people pushing for action, if they feel that their lifestyle choices don’t quite reflect their desire for a stable climate.
- We are reminded that while law enforcement has a job to do, they are also humans living on the same planet. When a female police officer unchains an activist, she says “thank you”. When asked why she said that, she explained that, “I have children too.” It’s our collective future that’s at stake, and thus we should all be on the same team.
Summary
“If we expect people to shed all their links to the life we’ve grown used to, to everything we do, before they join the fight, no one will ever sign up. We will never get anywhere. We need to start from where we are, not where we want to be. We need to be honest. We need to admit that all this is as fucking difficult for me as it is for you, as it is for everyone.”
From Here is a bold example of how the climate crisis can drive the plot of an entire novel. While the love story between Anna and her boyfriend served to add flesh to their characters, the climate emergency was the focus of the book. It engaged readers about climate activism, as well as the barriers to climate action.
There is a great analogy in the book, which compares the behaviour we’d allow in our homes, to that which we’ve allowed on our planet, “None of us would tolerate in our own homes what we’re tolerating in our shared home – the one that’s all around our homes, whether we like it or not. You know, you can work as hard as you can to create your perfect place in this world, but it’s still going to be on this planet. It’s still going to be beneath our one atmosphere. We all share it – and we’re all responsible for it.”
What this novel does is make us think differently about the climate crisis, and the responsibility each of us has in addressing it. As such, I believe this is a crucial part of the cli-fi cannon (see my other cli-fi reviews here), and writers could also learn a lot from it.
The simple message regarding the urgent need for climate action and summed up in just two words in the novel, is a message important enough to end this review on – “Action! Now!”
My new cli-fi children’s picture book, Nanook and the Melting Arctic is available from Amazon’s global stores including Amazon UK and Amazon US. My eco-fiction children’s picture book, Hedgey-A and the Honey Bees about how pesticides affect bees, is available on Amazon’s global stores including Amazon UK and Amazon US.