The Great Transition

Googins in his smart debut imagines a near-future where net-zero emissions are reached after catastrophic climate change. Larch and Kristina lose their loved ones to wildfires and preventable diseases, respectively, and fall in love after meeting as volunteers in a flooded New York City. They then start a family in the utopian city of Nuuk, Greenland. Fifteen years later, their daughter, Emi, laments their marital rift, which formed over their divergent political views. As the world is readying for a Day Zero celebration to commemorate the first day of net-zero, Kristina remains angry over past atrocities committed by “climate criminals.” Larch, however, is complacent with the new world. Not wanting to celebrate, Kristina volunteers to harvest crops in New York. Larch and Emi, meanwhile, attend the festivities and become entrapped in a terrorist attack. It turns out that those responsible for exploiting Earth’s resources remain alive and in power and will murder to keep it that way. Googins overlays an affecting family story on the speculative material, conveying Kristina’s disenchantment after she realizes the man she married wasn’t a fellow revolutionary after all. Climate fiction fans will enjoy this. Agent: Danielle Bukowski, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Aug.)