“A blistering attack on human neglect, exploitation and abuse of the planet.” VG

The highly anticipated final installment of Maja Lunde’s bestselling Climate Quartet.

Longyearbyen, 2110: Far to the North, buried deep in the mountains, is a massive vault filled with seeds from every corner of the Earth. Tommy grows up in the brutal landscape of Spitzbergen alongside his two brothers, for whom he would do anything, and his grandmother, the seed keeper of the vault. Life just to the South of the North Pole is demanding, but their tiny community has found its shape. It has been many years since they cut off contact with other countries, and in their isolation, they live in harmony with nature.

When Longyearbyen is hit by a disaster, Tommy, his brothers, and his grandmother are among the few survivors. Six lonely people in a deserted landscape, in possession of a treasure the world thought forever lost.

At the same time, in a place far, far away, Tao subsists on the memories of her son Wei-Wen, whom she lost twelve years ago. Every day is the same; she is numb with sadness. And she is starving, like the rest of her people, trapped on a barren, impoverished land where countless species have disappeared.

But everything changes the day Tao is asked to lead an expedition to the North. The destination is Spitzbergen and its legendary seeds.

With The Dream of a Tree, Maja Lunde concludes her Climate Quartet, one of the greatest successes in contemporary Norwegian literature. It is a chilling and gripping tale about our responsibility to this planet, both as a species and as individuals. Lunde writes about parents and children, about the connections that bind us, and the love we hold for nature. Past, present and future are woven together, and the novel poses questions that our age is striving to answer: How did homo sapiens become the species that changed everything? Do we deserve to be masters of nature? And are we, too, an endangered species?