Our House is on Fire
ACAN has teamed up with the South Central Regional Library to showcase their resources about sustainability. We invite you to check out their wide range of books on this topic. During the next few weeks ACAN will be highlighting and reviewing several of the books from this collection. To arrange for a contactless pick up of books, you can
a) place a hold on the books you want online or by phone
b) call 204-324-1503 to schedule your pick up time
Our House is on Fire – Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis
By Malena and Beata Ernman, Svante and Greta Thunberg
Most people are probably familiar with Greta Thunberg. Famous for her climate activism, named TIME Person of the Year in 2019, and a Nobel Peace prize nominee, she sparked a worldwide student movement demanding world leaders take action on climate change. While she became famous for her school strikes, Our House is on Fire gives powerful insight into how and why Greta started her school strike each Friday to sit outside the Swedish Parliament.
While mostly narrated from the perspective of Greta’s mother, Malena Ernman, the book was written collaboratively by Greta, her parents and her sister Beata. It begins with Malena’s description of their family life and how at age 11 they began to notice Greta’s physical and mental health deteriorating. She “was slowly disappearing into some kind of darkness and little by little, bit by bit, she seemed to stop functioning.” Greta developed an eating disorder, stopped eating and lost 10 kg in 2 months. The author painfully conveys the sense of powerless that Greta’s parents felt as their world began to fall apart.
The book goes on to detail the families’ struggles with the medical and education systems and describe how Greta faced indifference from the school system and bullying from her peers. She was eventually diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, selective mutism and Asperger syndrome. The path to eventually getting a diagnosis and treatment included moments in which Malena describes the daily struggles as a “heavy, boundless darkness” of pure fear.
While narrating the reader through the families’ crisis, (the other daughter Beata has challenges of her own),
the family simultaneously examines the crisis facing our planet. Malena skillfully educates the reader on the climate crisis as her family educates themselves about it.
It is through learning to channel her laser-like focus and diving into climate activism that Greta and her family begin their healing. Driven by Greta’s determination to understand the truth and promote change, they begin to see connections between their own suffering and the planet’s.
This book is an intimate, heart wrenching story of a families’ struggle for survival, perseverance and their love for each other. Greta’s courageous journey toward activism is an inspiring call to action for the reader.
“The climate crisis is one symptom among many of an unsustainable world.
An acute symptom.
At the same time the sustainability crisis is a choice.
A chance to put everything right.
And in that lies our hope.”
-Malena Ernman
By Joanne Wiebe