Richard Powers brings trees to the forefront in “The Overstory.” The novel weaves together multiple characters whose lives intertwine through their connection to trees and environmental activism. Powers emphasizes humanity’s deep-rooted relationship with nature.
Some of the stories include an artist inspired by trees, a young woman dedicated to activist causes, and a war veteran rediscovering purpose through conserving forests. Each storyline explores forests not as mere backdrops but as essential to human existence.
“The Overstory” urges readers to consider our environmental impacts by depicting the powerful interdependence between humans and nature.
In “Flight Behavior,” Barbara Kingsolver tells the story of Dellarobia, a woman living in rural Tennessee whose life transforms dramatically upon discovering millions of monarch butterflies settling unexpectedly near her home.
This odd migration pattern serves as a warning sign of climate disruption. As scientists and media descend upon the town, Dellarobia is drawn into understanding how personal lives intersect profoundly with larger ecological issues.
Kingsolver captures climate change effects vividly while highlighting socioeconomic influences on how communities experience and interpret environmental disasters.
Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Water Knife” portrays a near-future America gripped by a fierce competition over dwindling water resources. In this tense landscape, water rights become fiercely contested commodities.
The story unfolds around Angel Velasquez, an enforcer for Las Vegas who ensures the city’s water security by whatever means necessary.
Set primarily in arid, conflict-ridden Arizona and Nevada, the novel reveals how scarcity reshapes society—turning ordinary people desperate, ruthless, and survival-focused. Bacigalupi paints a stark vision of environmental collapse due to water mismanagement.
Paolo Bacigalupi’s dystopian “The Windup Girl” explores a future Thailand ravaged by climate change and genetic engineering gone wrong. In this destabilized society, mega-corporations wage fierce competition over seed genetics, energy, and resources.
Emiko, a bioengineered woman known as a “Windup Girl,” seeks freedom and dignity amid environmental decay and exploitation.
Through Emiko’s personal struggle and the political intrigue surrounding bioengineered foods and resources, Bacigalupi illustrates how environmental destruction can deeply alter humanity’s ethics, economies, and everyday life.
“Oryx and Crake,” Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, takes us through a post-apocalyptic world devastated by genetic experiments and environmental catastrophe. Snowman, previously known as Jimmy, may be the last true human survivor.
He recalls his friendship with the manipulative, genius scientist Crake and their mutual fascination with the mysterious woman, Oryx. Atwood demonstrates the consequences of environmental exploitation, unchecked genetic manipulation, and corporate greed.
The story examines the dangerous connections between scientific ambition and ecological devastation, resonating powerfully with contemporary environmental concerns.
Edward Abbey’s “The Monkey Wrench Gang” features misfit environmentalists who band together to sabotage industrial destruction of the American Southwest wilderness.
Abbey populates the novel with colorful characters like Doc Sarvis, Hayduke, and Bonnie Abzug, whose outraged passion for nature pushes them into direct action.
Through humor, rebellious energy, and sharp critiques of development and ecological exploitation, Abbey highlights urgent threats to natural landscapes. Their covert campaign illustrates the lengths people go for environmental preservation.
“Parable of the Sower,” Octavia Butler’s dystopian vision, portrays America ravaged by climate change, economic collapse, and societal disorder.
The story centers around teenage protagonist Lauren Olamina, who journeys toward safety in a crumbling landscape devastated by environmental disasters and violence. Lauren creates a belief system called Earthseed, based on embracing change and adaptation.
Butler demonstrates how environmental crisis deeply reshapes social structures, community survival, and human beliefs about hope, faith, and identity.
In Ian McEwan’s “Solar,” the story revolves around Michael Beard, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist grappling with personal and professional failures.
Despite these setbacks, he becomes involved in a solar energy project, hoping to capitalize on climate change as both a crisis and business opportunity. McEwan blends serious environmental concerns with humor, satire, and sharp insight into human flaws and ambition.
Through Beard’s self-destructive decisions and ironic twists, “Solar” reflects humanity’s complex, often contradictory responses to climate change challenges.
T.C. Boyle’s “A Friend of the Earth” imagines the United States in ecological collapse around 2025. Tyrone Tierwater, once an environmental activist serving prison time, reflects on his years of struggle to prevent ecological disaster.
This novel contrasts youthful idealism with later disillusionment and explores how good intentions can falter against political realities.
Boyle shows vividly how environmental damage unfolds gradually yet irreversibly, emphasizing both activist passion and human frailty when confronting dire ecological circumstances.
Annie Proulx’s extensive novel “Barkskins” revolves around multi-generational narratives across three centuries, depicting the widespread deforestation of North America and its profound consequences.
Beginning with two impoverished French settlers, the story reveals many descendants grappling with financial success, colonialism, ecological destruction, and cultural loss.
Throughout the narrative, trees are central as symbols and resources, reflecting environmental recklessness and humanity’s exploitative attitude toward nature. Proulx vividly captures the large-scale historical shifts driven by environmental exploitation.
In “Memory of Water,” author Emmi Itäranta imagines a bleak, futuristic world ravaged by severe water scarcity and climate disaster.
Seventeen-year-old Noria is trained by her father to become a tea master, responsible for guarding a hidden spring amid oppressive restrictions on water resources.
When catastrophic drought threatens her community, Noria faces crucial decisions about loyalty, tradition, and survival. The novel highlights the fragility of natural resources through a personal story centered on human strength amid adversity and environmental hardship.
Set in the late 21st-century America, Omar El Akkad’s “American War” presents a country fractured by civil conflict driven primarily by climate change impacts and fossil fuel use restrictions.
The narrative follows Sarat Chestnut, whose family members become deeply involved in war and resistance activities. El Akkad reimagines United States geography after climate disaster, flooding coastlines and altering political alliances.
This provocative depiction forces readers to confront how climate disruptions reshape nations, communities, and individuals.
Amitav Ghosh’s “Gun Island” follows rare book dealer Deen Datta through encounters that intertwine history, mythology, human migration, and environmental issues.
From Kolkata to Venice, Deen discovers environmental events impacting migrant populations and glimpses larger patterns of ecological shift. Ghosh emphasizes how ancient myths connect to modern environmental changes and human dislocations.
“Gun Island” reveals profound ecological interconnections and questions our human attitudes toward nature and responsibility during global environmental crises.
Charlotte McConaghy’s novel, “Migrations,” introduces Franny Stone, a woman determined to chase the world’s last Arctic terns on an extraordinary migration affected by climate change. Franny enlists a fishing crew on her epic, ultimately revealing journey across oceans.
Along the way, this deeply personal narrative interweaves global environmental issues with intimate human struggles.
“Migrations” highlights climate change’s devastating impacts on wildlife and Earth’s fragile ecosystems, told through intensely human stories amid disappearing natural realms.
Cormac McCarthy’s harrowing novel “The Road” shows a father and son traveling through post-apocalyptic America devastated by vague ecological catastrophe.
The barren landscape, darkened skies, ash-covered terrain, and relentless desperation reveal unsettling environmental devastation. McCarthy never clearly defines the disaster but vividly portrays its bleak results—highlighting starvation, ruined nature, and societal collapse.
Through stark imagery and powerful character connections, the novel captures haunting human endurance amid environmental breakdown, leaving lasting emotional impact.