January 2026
This month, the Rebel Library takes a deep dive into future scenarios in fiction and non-fiction, with a list of recommended titles ranging from feelgood solarpunk and post-apocalyptic survivalism to incisive non-fiction addressing altruism, climate activism and the fraught politics of human reproduction.
January 2026
Fiction
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook
In this haunting debut novel, Diane Cook explores a tense, often disturbing mother-daughter relationship against the backdrop of a world devastated by pollution, climate catastrophe, and overpopulation. Bea and her daughter Agnes are part of an experimental government study that allows a small group of volunteers to live in the untouched Wilderness State. Here the nomads must follow strict “Leave No Trace” rules enforced by the Rangers who oversee them. But the fragile community, marked by in-fighting, loyalties, and betrayals, is under constant threat, confronting both Bea and Agnes with the same wrenching choice—fight for the land they’ve come to love, or surrender their fragile freedom for the promise of survival elsewhere. A gripping drama of motherhood, nature, and humanity’s place in a fragile, endangered world.
– Liz Jensen
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
This feelgood solarpunk novella centres on Dex, a tea monk who grows restless of peaceful nomadic life and ventures into the untrodden wilderness. Here Dex meets Mosscap, a robot designed to harvest information about what humans truly need. In the duo’s philosophical discussions about humanity, purpose and identity, Mosscap gains insight into human emotion and complexity, while Dex realizes that “it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it…It’s what animals do.” A curious, playful tale told with engaging verve.
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
In the not too distant future, Kolkata is beset by scorching heat, floods and famine. Against this searing backdrop, Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Michigan on a climate refugee visa.
As worsening food shortages hit, people are driven to increasingly desperate measures. Boomba, the thief, commits a series of escalating crimes in order to keep his family alive, but when he breaks into Ma’s home and steals the bag with all their immigration documents, the consequences turn out to be far-reaching.
Set over the course of one week, A Guardian and a Thief tells two stories: the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief while keeping hunger at bay during a worsening food shortage; and the story of ferocious love and undefeated hope in the face of encroaching catastrophe.
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
McEwan’s novel begins as a rose-tinted look at our present day through the lens of future historian Tom Metcalfe as he pores over the 21st Century archives at the University of the South Downs, part of Britain’s remaining archipelagos. Metcalfe marvels at the pinnacles humanity achieved and laments what has been lost. The dystopian undertones creep in though, when he stumbles across a clue leading to a great lost poem. Revelations of a brutal crime emerge and destroy his assumptions about a story he thought he knew.
What We Can Know is a gripping novel exploring what might become of us in an era of war and climate breakdown and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.
‘A daring, beautiful novel, full of wisdom and heart’ Elif Shafak
NON FICTION
The Conceivable Future by Elizabeth Kallman and Josephine Ferorelli
Authors Meghan Elizabeth Kallman and Josephine Ferorelli skillfully present a compelling argument about why babies are not bad for the planet and why reproduction should not be seen as an emissions reduction tool. First, affluence, not population, is the primary driver of greenhouse gas emissions. Second, in detailing the long, shameful history of reproductive injustice in the United States and globally, the authors make clear that controlling, or encouraging the control of, the reproduction of (child-bearing) bodies is never acceptable.
– XR Global
What We Owe The Future by William MacAskill
In What We Owe The Future, philosopher William MacAskill argues for longtermism, that idea that positively influencing the distant future is a key moral priority of our time. From this perspective, it’s not enough to reverse climate change or avert the next pandemic. We must ensure that civilisation would rebound if it collapsed, counter the end of moral progress, and prepare for a planet where the smartest beings are digital, not human.
If we put humanity’s course to right, our grandchildren’s grandchildren will thrive, knowing we did everything we could to give them a world full of justice, hope, and beauty.
Books for Children
Climate Is Just the Start by Mikaela Loach
Kids hear about the climate crisis pretty much every day. From their parents, from their teachers, on social media, and in the news, there is no escaping it. Against a broader backdrop of social inequity and unfairness, it’s easy for young people to feel a sense of “doom and gloom” about everything and to feel powerless.
In Climate Is Just The Start, UK-based climate activist Mikaela Loach offers her urgent and inspiring message for kids who want to start building a better world for everyone. Mikaela explains the climate crisis and its broader social implications through personal stories about her activism journey. She writes about friends from around the world who are experiencing the worst of it today and about what they are doing to fight back. She delivers a message or not only hope, but of excitement for the opportunity to create not only a sustainable future for Earth, but better lives for people in the process.
Mikaela is truly on the front lines of the climate movement: leading street protests, confronting fossil fuel executives, taking the UK government to court, and speaking up to those in power. Not only will kids love engage with her style, they will be inspired by her example.
Age:8 to 12 years
Poem of the Month
Dear Darkening Ground
Reiner Maria Rilke (Translation Joanna Macy)
Dear darkening ground,
you’ve endured so patiently the walls we’ve built,
please give the cities one more hour
and grant the churches and cloisters two,
And those that labor — maybe you’ll let their work
grip them for another five hours, or seven
before you become forest again, and water,
and widening wilderness,
in that hour of inconceivable terror
when you take back your name from all things.
Just give me a little more time.
I just need a little more time,
because I am going to Love the things
as no one has thought to love them,
until they’re real and worthy of you.
Contact our Librarian if you would like themed book lists to support teaching about climate change.
We’re always looking for ideas for books to add to our growing collection of literature on the climate and nature crisis. If would like to share ideas, please get in touch! Contact mattroselibrary@gmail.com.