Author: Ghosh Amitav
Place: India
Publisher: Penguin Books
Year: 2016
Pages: 275
ISBN: 978-0-670-08913-0
Subject: Environment
Sub-Subject: Climate Change
Keyword: Climate Change, Great Derangement, Climate Crisis
Shelf: C1R4
Accession No: B1125
Contents: Part I: Stories, Part II: History, Part III: Politics, Acknowledgements, Endnotes
Abstract: In *The Great Derangement*, one of India’s most renowned authors, Amitav Ghosh, presents a thought-provoking argument: future generations might well view us as deranged. How else, he contends, can we explain our failure to comprehend the enormity of climate change? In this compelling return to non-fiction, Ghosh delves into our collective inability to grasp the full scale and violence of the climate crisis, whether in literature, history, or politics. He points out that the extreme nature of today’s climate events is often too far outside the bounds of our imagination to be taken seriously in contemporary fiction. Destructive storms, freak tornadoes, and unprecedented weather events are often dismissed as improbable, relegated to genres that are seen as “fantastical” or speculative. In the realm of history, the climate crisis has often been reduced to oversimplified narratives that fail to account for its full complexity. Politically, Ghosh observes, the climate debate has devolved into a matter of individual moral reckoning, with too little focus on collective action. This shift towards personal responsibility rather than a shared, collective response has profound consequences. However, Ghosh insists that the climate crisis demands more than just moral contemplation. It calls for an imaginative leap—a rethinking of how humanity might live in the face of such an overwhelming challenge. Fiction, he argues, holds the key to this task, as it is uniquely suited to envisioning alternative futures and new forms of human existence. *The Great Derangement* is thus a powerful and urgent call to action, challenging us to confront the existential crisis of our time.