The most recommended eco fiction

I love books that show a bond between humans and animals. Especially well-researched books. And this story certainly captures it all with a sweet encounter between a lonely polar bear and a girl. Between the environmental tidbits, the plight of polar bears, and also the unique storyline, this book should be on everyone’s radar. 

I absolutely love twisted scenarios, and Maria Haushofer’s book presents us with a simple yet terrifying premise: What if you were trapped, alone, for the rest of your natural life?

While staying at her family’s countryside lodge, the protagonist wakes up to find an invisible barrier separating her small patch of land from the rest of the world. Thanks to some exploration and a pair of binoculars, she can see that everyone beyond the wall is dead, apparently turned to stone.

The entire story follows the sole character’s isolation and struggle to survive. Well, I should say sole human character because Haushofer does an incredible job of bringing her non-human personas to life via a dog, cow, bull, several cats, and even an albino crow.

This is a strange and fascinating novel, and I promise you’ll never read another like it.

After the Snow follows the adventures of a boy who finds his family is missing when returning home in the snow-bound hills. The settings and atmosphere in the book are beautifully worked, as is the voice, which I found to be bold, fluent, and captivating. The characters are strong and the plot bumps along at a good pace. Another must-read!

Where the World Turns Wild plays on one of my biggest fears about the future – a world without nature. Juniper and her little brother Bear live in a walled city where nature has been almost completely eradicated following the outbreak of a disease. What remains is a tightly controlled and terrifying society that they must escape. Juniper’s bravery and her capacity for survival are driven by the fierce, protective love she has for her little brother. This is an adventure story like no other and one I have returned to time and again.

This is an extraordinary novel.

Sun House is a sprawling, challenging, intimate, and deeply engaging book that follows the lives of a dozen or so amazing characters as they struggle to find meaning and purpose in their lives. Although they are all extreme people in various ways, you can find yourself in each of them.

The setting is the Pacific Northwest, especially Oregon, Washington, and Montana from 1958-2016. The characters' lives intertwine in remarkable ways, both with each other and with the urban, rural, and wilderness landscapes that they inhabit.

As you read about their developmental journeys, you will also get involved in challenging discussions about Buddhist and Christian spirituality, wilderness philosophy, and ecological awareness. Most importantly, you deeply care about each of the characters.

The book sometimes seems like it's gone astray with wild spiritual speculation, but it always returns to its home ground—the intriguing lives of its… show more.

Daisy is searching for her mother, an eco-journalist who has gone missing in the Amazon. When I am wearing my other hat, I am a travel journalist who specialises in plants and gardens I could not fail to be intrigued by this situation.

Daisy finds a portal in Kew Gardens and enters a universe called Greenwild, where a group called The Botanists are preserving magical flora. Full of exciting adventures that children find entertaining, I loved this book because it nevertheless subtly indicates that plants are a very real source of magic. 

Abbey wrote twenty-one books. While others considered him a “nature writer,” he roiled at that idea.

Instead, he considered himself a novelist, and he spent his entire career trying to write “the great American novel.” Published in 1988, a year before his death, Abbey called The Fool’s Progress his “fat masterpiece.” And I agree.

This might be his most intimate and emotional book. To me, this book aches with heart. This semi-autobiographical novel is about Henry Holyoak Lightcap’s journey home from the Desert Southwest to die in West Virginia.

The book is filled with reflection on death, which was what Abbey was experiencing in his own life.

What if we get it wrong? What if the scale and pace of our collective measures to address climate destabilisation and the biodiversity crisis remain insufficient?

Oreskes and Conway provide the imagined view of a historian of the “Second People's Republic of China” from 2393. His account describes how the political and economic elites of the early decades of the twenty-first century ignored or dismissed the clear warnings of climate catastrophe.

Soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, drought, and mass migrations resulted in “The Great Collapse of 2093”. Three centuries later as the world emerges from the “Penumbral Age’ it is a more subdued and thoughtful place. 

By dramatizing an all-too-plausible ‘ghastly’ outcome, the authors seek to galvanise the energies of readers to rise from their armchairs and act. We should all strive to ensure that the book remains firmly on the shelves of fiction.

Even though I may not be able to visit Italy anytime soon, I decided to go there in spirit.

This book was chosen because it contains a diverse range of literary talents from all walks of life in Italy (poets, musicians, teachers, scientists, and even politicians). Each short story was told in a lively Italian voice. This collection spoke to me about everything that is Italy: landscapes, passions, food, and the country's turbulent political life.

After diving into the first pages, I was immediately transported into the narratives, completely forgetting that I was reading a translation. I was captivated by the stories themselves, a testament to their masterful storytelling. This is a fascinating anthology for readers interested in learning more about Italian culture.

One of the most inventive novels I’ve read in recent years, this beautiful Pyrenean patchwork is supposed to evoke the orchestra of voices of the mountain region in which the book takes place.

Thus, you have the points of view of local farmers and their families, but also of the mountains themselves, of storm clouds and baskets of mushrooms and plenty of animals, wild and domesticated. The Deer takes us on a delightful tangent, but the most memorable chapter might be the one from the point of view of the spirited, breathlessly energetic dog.