Drømmen om et tre The Dream of a Tree

The Climate Quartet #4

Longyearbyen 2110: Deep inside the mountains in the far north, lies a vault filled with seeds from every corner of the world. Tommy grows up in Svalbard’s brutal landscape with two brothers he would do anything for and a grandmother who is the vault’s seedkeeper. It takes a lot to survive just south of the North Pole, but the tiny community has found a way. Having long since cut ties with the outside world, they now live in harmony with nature.

Then Longyearbyen suffers a catastrophe. Tommy, his brothers and grandmother are among the few survivors. Six isolated people in a barren land, holding a treasure the rest of the world thought was gone forever.

Far away, Tao clings to her memories of her son Wei-Wen, whom she lost twelve years ago. Each day is the same, she is numb and plagued by sorrow. And she is starving, like everyone else, in a meager and depleted nature where many species have gone extinct. But everything changes the day Tao is asked to lead an expedition north. Their goal is Svalbard and the seeds.

The Dream of a Tree is the fourth and final installment in the Climate Quartet. Past, present, and future are interwoven as the story asks questions which we still struggle to answer: How did humans become the species that changed everything? Do we deserve to be the masters of nature? And, are we ourselves an endangered species?

Reviews

“Maja Lunde finishes her novel quartet with a phenomenal documentation of the future.”

Dagens Nyheter, Sweden
“Impressive end to the Climate Quartet! The novel is thoroughly worked-through and well-written. It’s a professional and literary achievement to complete the quartet with a finale like this.”

★★★★★★

Verdens Gang, Norway
“A dark masterpiece.”

Sydsvenskan, Sweden
“Not only the theme, but also the characters drew me directly into the story and wouldn’t let me go.”

Flow, Germany
“Warm and thoughtful.”

Gong, Germany
“Excellent!”

Elle, Germany
“Unvarnished, highly exciting and definitely worth reading!”

emotion, Germany
“Lunde writes, as always, in an exciting and empathetic style.”

Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, Germany
“The Dream of a Tree is a suggestive end to a quartet of novels written to keep us observant; not of nature itself, but human nature.”

Kristianstadsbladet, Sweden
“The Dream of a Tree follows a couple of youngsters in Svalbard 100 years into the future and skilfully achieves to capture both uncertaintly and desolation. /…/ The Dream of a Tree is an equally desolate as warm, spine-chilling as comforting novel and a highly dignified ending to Lunde’s series of novels. ”

Tidningen Vi, Sweden
“Maja Lunde portrays the momentous issues and hints at answers in her climate saga, a powerful, realistic epic. ”

Arbetarbladet, Sweden
“A futuristic dystopia that is both frightening and profoundly moving. ”

Jönköpings-Posten, Sweden
“One of the most important things out there to read today. /…/ With Lunde there is no alarmism and the tales about the humans of the future are fine-tuned. The novels shyly unfolds their petals and it’s not until the very end that you can see the greater narrative. Alongside Kim Stanley Robinson Lunde writes the most aesthetically advanced cli-fi literature to be read right now. /…/ The seeds continously alternate between symbolizing salvation and mass destruction. That also means the characters can frequently be seen from new angles. It’s in this very alternation that Lunde’s greatness rests. The point of her climate fictions aren’t to create a new type of psychological portaits (…) It’s rather to construct a literary greenhouse where new symbols can grow. /…/ The Dream of a Tree thus completes one of of most important works of our time – a tetralogy that unfolds its own biosphere in the Nordic literature.”

Aftonbladet, Sweden