And So I Roar by Abi Daré
This book is the first winner of the Climate Fiction Prize1, launched this year. The team behind the prize explained why:
We want to reward and showcase powerful stories that depict the human response to climate change; how it impacts us and how society responds.
For societies to fully grasp the climate change threat and to embrace its solutions, we need better stories. It’s not enough for audiences to know about climate change; they need to see an uncertain future and understand that change is urgent but possible.
Many of us already see tackling climate as important; but we don’t always know how we should respond. Fiction can help us imagine what change can look like.
I was made aware of the prize by a podcast we have recommended before – The Climate Question from the BBC World Service2.
This novel is set in Nigeria and isn’t actually ‘about’ climate change. It tells the story of two Nigerian women from very different backgrounds, showing how in rural Africa the effects of climate change can make a society already very tough for women and girls even more difficult.
The message is woven through a compelling story with strong characters. The book points up the contrast between a middle-class aspirational lifestyle in Lagos and life in a rural village in lots of ways, from the continued practice of child brides to the value placed on 'handmade' items in the city, mysterious to a girl from a home where handmade means hard work.