Forecasts: A Story of Weather and Finance at the Edge of Disaster

by Caroline E. Schuster, Enrique Bernardou (Illustrator), David Bueno i Torrens (Illustrator)

Based in the agrarian world of commercial sesame farming in northern Paraguay, Forecasts tells a story about what happens when global insurance companies promise financial safety nets to local farmers struggling with the effects of climate change. This striking graphic novel brings together original ethnographic research and Paraguayan gothic art to confront the limitations of finance to respond to a deteriorating environment. Taking a human-centered approach to complex weather and financial models, Forecasts offers new ways of looking at overlapping speculative futures in a more-than-human landscape. Based on more than a year of fieldwork in Paraguay, the book follows one man’s possible journeys through a season of planting and harvesting, buffeted by losses and sustained by the hope that he can cultivate conditions that will help his family thrive. Forecasts makes a sweeping account of environmental and financial risk accessible through the intimate story of one family’s triumphs, heartbreaks, and hopes for the future.

232 pages, Paperback

Published May 30, 2023

Reviews

[Izzy Thurber]

Another anthro major reading this for a class, really getting more into graphic ethnographies and this is a really good one! A bit short for my liking but also the short form made it really digestible and easy to understand.

[Patricia]

Purposefully left the book in a public place so housemates would keep picking it up and reading it. Thoughtful portrayal of COVID-interrupted research, climate uncertainty and financial speculation, and the life of a Paraguayan sesame farmer. Highly recommend! And really appreciated the appendices at the end of the book to think through process.

[Cynthia Parkhill]

I was in Lexington, Ky for a library conference and ended up sharing a table at a restaurant with the author's sibling. The book sounded really interesting so my spouse and I bought it. I think the book will bear careful rereading as it's a complicated subject.