From Here

by Daniel Kramb

Written in the Now, for the Now, 'From Here' is a moving story about one of the biggest challenges we face, about the activism of ordinary people, and about a women's quest for love - and a place in the world."Mortifying, fascinating, intriguing. 'From Here' is an engaging novel that's fun, but also hard. A great, smart deep dive into the issues and how difficult it is to find one's place and traction within them." -- Tzeporah Berman, author of 'This Crazy Living Our Environmental Challenge' "This book will engage different parts of the imagination than the bar graphs and pie charts environmentalists usually rely on." -- Bill McKibben, author of ' Making a Life on a Tough New Planet'"'From Here' delivers environmental politics with a realistic human face. A slow-burning, contemplative and disarming novel. Internal personal struggles set at a time of environmental crisis have never been more entertaining." -- Kit Caless, editor Influx PressTrying to settle down after ten years spent country-hopping, the heroine of Daniel Kramb's novel is still adjusting to her new life. Independent-minded and strong, she's suddenly struggling with an unease she can't quite name - and a desire she hasn't felt in years. 

Is she deluding herself when she believes that the attractive political assistant opposite her has the promise in his mysterious green eyes? 

And where is that group of climate change 'activists' leading her she has just joined? Is something that used to be 'other people, elsewhere' really becoming so personal drastic action is the only option? Is she prepared to find out? 
Settling down, it seems, is becoming the most unsettling experience she's had in her life. 


Genres: Climate Change Fiction

170 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2012

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This cli-fi novel is likely inspired by the Kingsnorth 6 case in the UK and similar attempts to disrupt the fossil fuel industry across the globe. Kramb tackles climate change in the present pushing toward the universal. The climate activism plot is built around two interesting, shifting characters struggling with their individual identities as they relate to each other and the world.

Details are avoided and signification is privileged over representation. Characters have names like, "the brainy one," and "the fashionista." I'm not sure if this Rorschach approach worked for me, but I appreciated his attempt to speak to the global everyman and woman. While some of their dialogue was a bit too "on the nose" for my taste the people populating the book were unique sketches of common archetypes.

Toward the end of the novel the protagonist addresses everything "from here" on "her hill" overlooking the city. This five-page chapter is where the author's prose takes flight around Kramb's universal vision. Kramb is still learning his craft but clearly has a bright future. 'From Here' is an admirable effort to capture an extremely complex idea through, "a beautiful, brief moment in time when speaking up, even just a little bit, had the power to change the world forever!"

Of interest: read Kramb's op-ed in the Guardian 'Climate Change Fiction Melts Away Just When It's Needed' http://gu.com/p/3b7nn

[Ryan Mizzen]

This cli-fi novel feels very much ahead of its time and contains an abundance of climate themes, with a strong focus on climate activism to bring about climate action.

A few examples of climate themes include:

• The story revolves around a group of five climate activists, who seek to raise awareness of the climate emergency.
• The activists comprise a fairly broad spectrum and include an ex-banker, and a fashionista, which makes the case that we need everyone.
• 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.
• 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.
• The novel also makes the case that we can’t wait for everyone to become green saints before pushing for climate action (“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.”).

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. I believe this book is a crucial part of the cli-fi cannon.

My full review can be read here: www.ryanmizzen.com/from-here-by-danie...

[T.O. Munro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book after seeing it mentioned by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson in a paper about climate change fiction entitled "The Slightest Bit of Difference: Regret and Radicalism in Climate Futures."

I have written a fuller review on the Fantasy Hive here .

For now, suffice to say this is an interesting book mingling romance and contemporary climate change activism. It is written in a slightly idiosyncratic style but nonetheless has some nice lines and engaging characters.

I also enjoyed its emphasis on collective ground level action in response to the climate crisis.