Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World

by John Freeman (Editor)

Overview

Building from his acclaimed anthology Tales of Two Americas, beloved writer and editor John Freeman draws together a group of our greatest writers from around the world to help us see how the environmental crisis is hitting some of the most vulnerable communities where they live.

In the past five years, John Freeman, previously editor of Granta, has launched a celebrated international literary magazine, Freeman's, and compiled two acclaimed anthologies that deal with income inequality as it is experienced. In the course of this work, one major theme came up repeatedly: Climate change is making already dire inequalities much worse, devastating further the already devastated. But the problems of climate change are not restricted to those from the less developed world.

Galvanized by his conversations with writers and activists around the world, Freeman engaged with some of today's most eloquent storytellers, many of whom hail from the places under the most acute stress—from the capital of Burundi to Bangkok, Thailand. The response has been extraordinary. Margaret Atwood conjures with a dys¬topian future in a remarkable poem. Lauren Groff whisks us to Florida; Edwidge Danticat to Haiti; Tahmima Anam to Bangladesh; Yasmine El Rashidi to Egypt, while Eka Kurniawan brings us to Indonesia, Chinelo Okparanta to Nigeria, and Anuradha Roy to the Himalayas in the wake of floods, dam building, and drought. This is a literary all-points bulletin of fiction, essays, poems, and reportage about the most important crisis of our times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143133926
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	514,440
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	1120L (what's this?)

About the Author

John Freeman is the editor of Freeman's, a literary annual of new writing, and executive editor of Literary Hub. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as Tales of Two Americas, an anthology about income inequality in America, and Tales of Two Cities, an anthology of new writing about inequality in New York City. He is also the author of two collections of poems, Maps and The Park. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he teaches writing at New York University.

Table of Contents

Introduction John Freeman xi

N64 35.378, W16 44.691 Iceland Andri Snær Magnason 1

Drowning in Reverse India Anuradha Roy 13

Tracking the Rain Canada Margaret Atwood 21

Riachuelo Argentina Mariana Enriquez, Translated Megan McDowell 23

Dusk United States Lauren Groff 33

From Teotwawki Denmark Lars Skinnebach, Translated Susanna Nied 47

Survival Japan Sayaka Murata, translated Ginny Tapley Takemori 49

The Astronomical Cost of Clean Air in Bangkok Thailand Pitchaya Sudbanthad 61

A Downward Slope Colombia Juan Miguel Álvarez, translated Christina MacSweeney 67

The Floods Pakistan Mohammed Hanif 73

Born Stranger Turkey Burhan Sönmez 77

In This Phase in the 58Th American Presidentiad (United States) United States Lawrence Joseph 83

The Storytellers of the Earth Eritrea/Ethiopia/Sudan/Britain/Belgium Sulaiman Addonia 85

The House of Osiris Egypt Yasmine El Rashidt 93

A Calypso Libya/United States Khaled Mattawa 99

Cavern Nigeria Chinelo Okparanta 101

The Unfortunate Place Bangladesh Tahmima Anam 119

Everything England Daisy Johnson 123

The Funniest Shit You Ever Heard Lebanon Lina Mounzer 137

Machandiz Haiti Edwidge Danticat 149

Recording Is His Priority: On The Photographs of Lu Guang China Ian Teh 159

El Lago Guatemala Eduardo Halfon 165

The Song of the Fireflies Burundi Gaël Faye, translated Sarah Ardizzone 171

The Rains Hawai'i Ligaya Mishan 175

The Well Indonesia Eka Kurniawan, translated Annie Tucker 183

A Blue Mormon Finds Himself among Common Emigrants India Tishani Doshi 201

Falling River, Concrete City Kenya Billy Kahora 205

Spring in Wadi Delab, The Valley of the (Absent) Plane Tree Palestine Raja Shehadeh Penny Johnson 215

That House Aotearoa/New Zealand Tayi Tibbie 225

Hawaiki Aotearoa/New Zealand Tayi Tibble 229

Bruno Sierra Leone Aminatta Forna 231

Sick World Mexico Diego Enrique Osorno, translated Christina Macsweeney 243

The Psychopaths United States Joy Williams 253

Coral Watch Jamaica Ishion Hutchinson 259

On the Organic Diversity of Literature: Notes from My Little Astrophysical Observatory Iceland Sjón, translated Philip Roughton 261

The Imperiled South Korea Krys Lee 269

Contributors 277

Acknowledgments 289

Editorial Reviews

Featured on the New York Times’ climate change reading list

One of Elle's Best Books of 2020!

"Tales of Two Planets is not soothing. It is not simple or stable, and it refuses easy pieties. You may struggle to make sense of the voices, to fit them into your own overarching narrative, and you will fail because there is no single narrative — these are tales, not a tale, and they force you to ask instead of answering, to continue asking, each tale an answer you’ve probably never heard. When writing can make you do that, at least for a moment, it’s another reason for hope."—Los Angeles Review of Books

“When the introduction has more content and brilliance than most books, you know you are in for a treat in the remaining pages….  Read it. Share it. Let it change the way you relate to our only home.” —Orion Magazine

“If you’ve only ever read the headlines about climate change wreaking its worst havoc on the world’s most vulnerable, Tales of Two Planets is likely to shock you. For everyone else, it will be a humanization of the broad trends you’ve read about, rendered with poignant specificity by writers who have actually lived them.” —Wired
 
“Full of such varied writing that there’s no opportunity for cliché to take hold . . . A reminder that excellent environmental writing can come from literally anywhere.” —The New Republic

“The third in Freeman’s hat trick of anthologies that examines inequalities, Tales of Two Planets, may be the most important, for it addresses a colossal and irreversible threat: climate change [. . . This] collection is critical to understanding our planet beyond the scope of our own personal plights.” —Literary Hub

“In this eye-opening anthology about climate change, an impressive cast of contributors including Edwidge Danticat, Mohammed Hanif, and Margaret Atwood reflect on how the grim horror of our current ecological reality is being felt around the world.” —Elle

“A powerful and timely collection on a topic that cannot be ignored . . . Assembling the creative work of respected writers from both the developed and developing world, Freeman offers a sobering meditation on the future challenges that everyone will face.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“[E]nvironmental and humanitarian crises in Egypt, Mexico, Hawaii, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and beyond are brought forward in masterful works elegiac, angry, and ironic in Freeman’s clarion global chorus.” —Booklist, starred review

“Tragically, climate change is one thing that's not on pause right now, and this impressive collection is a small but engaging way to remind yourself of that [. . .] Every piece is short but impactful.” —Outside

From the Publisher

02/01/2020

This anthology showcases personal responses to climate change through literature. Freeman (Tales of Two Americas) has collected 36 reports, essays, poems, and stories from writers such as Margaret Atwood, Lauren Groff, Edwidge Danticat, Mohammed Hanif, Tahmima Anam, Eka Kurniawan, and Chinelo Okparanta. Many of the articles in this varied anthology recall childhood play in remnants of wild landscapes, now erased by settlements or reduced to wasteland. The disruptive effects of unstable weather patterns are also a recurring theme. Most pieces take place in the present, though two stories inhabit a dystopian near future. In his introduction, Freeman predicts 300 million climate refugees will be on the move by the end of the century. While sadness and anger are prevalent moods, there is also dark humor. Aminatta Forna's essay "Bruno" describes how a long-captive chimpanzee led an escape of his troop from a fenced sanctuary for endangered wildlife, becoming a folk hero in Sierra Leone. VERDICT This work will suit readers curious about the long-standing and wide-ranging effects of climate change, as lived and experienced by writers around the world.—David R. Conn, formerly with Surrey Libs., BC

Library Journal

2020-01-02
The founder of Freeman's and executive editor of Literary Hub gathers poems, essays, and short stories about global warming and inequality penned by writers from around the world.Climate change is the most urgent crisis now facing humanity. But as Freeman (Dictionary of the Undoing, 2019, etc.) notes in his introduction, "large numbers of the world's most powerful residents cannot grasp what it means." Assembling the creative work of respected writers from both the developed and developing world, Freeman offers a sobering meditation on the future challenges that everyone will face. In her bleakly stark poem "Tracking the Rain," Margaret Atwood reflects on how extreme drought is making itself felt in rich countries like her native Canada and how predictive technologies have been rendered useless by the randomness associated with climate change. In "Machandiz," Edwidge Danticat takes up the theme of planetary overheating. With the devastating clarity that has become her literary hallmark, she observes the struggle of people from her native Haiti to survive political and economic problems now compounded by the brutal onslaughts of nature. "The Well," a short story by Indonesian novelist Eka Kurniawan, tells the tragic story of how drought and floods destroyed possibilities for union between a boy and a girl from a tiny Indonesian village. Had nature been "kinder," none of the losses that make their love impossible would have occurred. South Korean writer Krys Lee offers a thought-provoking fictional take on the consequences of living in a damaged environment. Citizens of an unnamed Asian city live with the ever present knowledge that the poisoned air they breathe through purifying masks and indoor filters may one day kill them. Fierce and provocative, this diverse collection shows that climate change is not just a problem for developing nations. One day, it will become a matter of life and death for rich and poor alike. Other contributors include Lauren Groff (U.S.), Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone), and Sjón (Iceland).

A powerful and timely collection on a topic that cannot be ignored.

Kirkus Reviews

John Freeman, formerly the editor of GRANTA, welcomes listeners to a collection of curated short works on climate change and economic inequality. The work tours a global economic divide that shows the poorest being hit hardest by climate change. Among Freeman’s stops: Sierra Leone, where Bahni Turpin narrates with amusement and admiration as an escaped chimpanzee gains hero status; Bangkok, where Deepti Gupta describes the picturesque real estate pitches that entice well-to-do residents to live above the pollution; and Burundi, where Dominick Hoffman brings a personal note to Gael Faye's recollections of the Hutu-Tutsi war. Fiction is included, such as Sayaka Murata's "Survival," a vision of a future Japan that classifies residents by their likelihood of long life spans, narrated in a melancholy tone by Kim Mai Guest. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile

John Freeman, formerly the editor of GRANTA, welcomes listeners to a collection of curated short works on climate change and economic inequality. The work tours a global economic divide that shows the poorest being hit hardest by climate change. Among Freeman’s stops: Sierra Leone, where Bahni Turpin narrates with amusement and admiration as an escaped chimpanzee gains hero status; Bangkok, where Deepti Gupta describes the picturesque real estate pitches that entice well-to-do residents to live above the pollution; and Burundi, where Dominick Hoffman brings a personal note to Gael Faye's recollections of the Hutu-Tutsi war. Fiction is included, such as Sayaka Murata's "Survival," a vision of a future Japan that classifies residents by their likelihood of long life spans, narrated in a melancholy tone by Kim Mai Guest. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile