One of our greatest living science-fiction writers Kim Stanley Robinson in conversation with Farid Tabarki

On Thursday 9 November Kim Stanley Robinson – one of our greatest living science-fiction writers – will speak with Farid Tabarki on the occasion of the Dutch translation of his latest book The Ministry for the Future. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel will change the way you think about the climate crisis.

In The Ministry for the Future (2020), a suffocating heat wave leads to widespread deaths in an Indian village. Scientists pump water away from melting ice caps to prevent rising sea levels. The UN establishes The Ministry for the Future: an international climate crisis body to protect future generations, and entities that cannot speak for themselves – by taking down polluting passenger planes with drones.

The novel The Ministry for the Future is both desperate and hopeful. Told entirely through fictional eye-witness accounts, it is a masterpiece of the imagination, in which Kim Stanley Robinson questions whether the climate crisis can be reversed. The setting is 2025: not a post-apocalyptic world, but a future right on our doorstep. Giving voice to our most ardent hopes and our worst fears, the book offers a gripping portrayal of a world grappling with the devastating consequences of climate change, as well as thought-provoking solutions to this life-threatening problem.

Kim Stanley Robinson (1952) is an American science fiction author, having written more than 20 novels and numerous short stories. He is best known for his Mars trilogy (1992-1996). His work frequently features ecological, cultural and political themes, and The New Yorker calls Robinson “one of the greatest living science fiction writers”.

This programme was conceived in cooperation with Guiding Voices and Starfish Books.