“It is difficult to express to someone who has not read [On Time and Water] how wonderful and how horrifying—in a nutshell, how truly vital—this book is. Magnason has created a masterpiece, staunchly scientific and highly informative, yet utterly raw in its humanity.”—Asymptote Journal
A story about glaciers, grandmothers and holy cows …
Shortlisted for The Nordic Councils Literary Award 2021
Winner of the Prima Tiziano Terzani International Literature Award 2021
How do you talk about something bigger than language? How do you weave into a book, scientific facts that seem to be bigger than all stories? We see headlines with terms like “global warming”, “climate change”, but these terms are rather new and vague, they don’t seem to stir emotion, action or policy change or urgency. The issue is like a black hole, they are so heavy they draw in all light. This issue is so large that language collapses. The only way to see a black hole and measure its size is by looking past it, to the surrounding galaxies. To understand climate change it can be good not to mention climate change, to look at the surroundings, to keep your grip on science while diving into mythology, family stories, personal memories, history of words and language. To understand the future and enhance our ability for long term thinking we need to connect to the past, to understand science we need mythology, to understand a global issue it must be understood locally and personally. The issue involves everything and everyone we know and love and it will be the fundamental challenge of this century. A race where everyone wins, or everyone looses.
On Time and Water was published in Icelandic in 2019 and is coming out in 30 countries in 2020-2022.