Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 7 reviews on
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.
Together with her mother, the celebrated opera singer Malena Ernman, her sister, Beata Ernman, and her father, Svante Thunberg, she has dedicated her life to protecting the living planet.
For those seeking a deeper understanding of our post-9/11 world & a clear sense of how our imperial globe actually works. http://t.co/JPyam5fo
From the Amazon as the year ends, @brumelianebrum of the Guardian on how Greta Thunberg's "our house is on fire" became all too literal for her as she watched that magnificent forest (and climate sink) burn. https://t.co/jdTL433bbm
Re-connecting young people with the natural world. Environmental Education, Climate Education & Forest School.
'Our house is on fire': Greta Thunberg, 16, urges leaders to act on climate https://t.co/SarF9YgD7i
News, reviews and author interviews plus tweets from the @Guardian and Observer books team. Support the Guardian today: https://t.co/g2jWebD5y0
This week's book of the week is Our House Is on Fire by Greta Thunberg and her family – reviewed by author David Mitchell https://t.co/c5X85CTbYo
"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