Our House is on Fire
Play sample
  • Published: 1 June 2021
  • ISBN: 9780141992884
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $26.00

Our House is on Fire

Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis

Formats & editions
Paperback
1 Jun 2021
EBook
5 Mar 2020
Audiobook
5 Mar 2020
Buy from…
The Nile Mighty Ape BookHub Whitcoulls The Warehouse Paper Plus Fishpond Book Hero Unity Books University Book Shop Find Local Retailers

A profoundly moving story of how love, courage and determination brought a family back from the brink

This is the story of a happy family whose life suddenly fell apart, never to be the same again. Of two devoted parents plunged into a waking nightmare as their eleven-year-old daughter stopped speaking and eating, and her younger sister struggled to cope.

This crisis was not theirs alone: they were burned-out people on a burned-out planet.

Our House is on Fire is the story of how one family found ways to strengthen, heal, and gain courage from the love they had for each other - and for the living world. It is a parable of hope and determination in an emergency that affects us all.
  • Published: 1 June 2021
  • ISBN: 9780141992884
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $26.00
Categories:

About the authors

Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg was born in 2003. In August 2018, she started a school strike for the climate outside the Swedish Parliament that has since spread all over the world and now involves over 1 million schoolchildren. The movement is now called Fridays For Future. Thunberg has spoken at climate rallies across Europe. In December she attended the United Nations COP24 in Katowice, Poland, where she addressed the Secretary-General and made a speech that was shared many million times around the globe. In January 2019 she was invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos where her speeches again made a worldwide impact. She has won the prestigious Prix Liberté and been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Thunberg is vegan, and doesn't fly, in order to live a low-carbon life.

portrait photo of Greta Thunberg

Praise for Our House is on Fire

Our House Is on Fire feels like a new form of nonfiction, intimate and approachable as a photo album: a family memoir. . . . This is also a remarkable story of togetherness: a modern family shifting and pivoting to keep each person afloat.

New Republic

An urgent, lucid, courageous account. . . . Everyone with an interest in the future of the planet should read this book. It is a clear-headed diagnosis. It is a glimpse of a saner world. It is fertile with hope.

David Mitchell, Guardian

An extraordinary account of how one family rose, with unshakable moral clarity, to the tremendous responsibility of being alive at the moment when our immediate collective decisions will determine the fate of life on Earth. They share their story of courage not because they want our accolades, but because they demand our company. Greta Thunberg has already inspired a global moment--this book is part of how we will win.

Naomi Klein

A surprisingly funny and optimistic book. Thunberg and her family might be screaming 'FIRE' on a crowded planet. But they believe we have the power to put that fire out if we act, right here, right now.

Telegraph

A book about finding purpose as a route to recovery.

Sunday Telegraph

This blazingly candid family memoir reveals the grueling and bewildering struggles that propelled Greta onto the world stage. . . . An unnerving and profoundly enlightening chronicle of the symbiosis between human and planetary health as manifest within one remarkable family whose painful awakeniThis blazingly candid family memoir reveals the grueling and bewildering struggles that propelled Greta onto the world stage. . . . An unnerving and profoundly enlightening chronicle of the symbiosis between human and planetary health as manifest within one remarkable family whose painful awakening to our 'acute sustainability crisis' should embolden us all.ng to our 'acute sustainability crisis' should embolden us all.

Booklist (starred review)

An impassioned call to action and a vulnerable family portrait of neurodiversity.

Kirkus

Discover more

Article
The view from down there

Greta Thunberg’s unique perspective allowed her to reject the contradictions of modern life.