The coordinated collections of books across stores and libraries all around the world represents that climate change is a hot topic amongst writers and novelists. In some, it is the main plot that the storyline revolves around, while in others, it is a part of the story, adding to it an element of background setting. These novels tend to raise awareness towards a less-known climate issue that continues working its way to kill the planet while we treat these with nothing but pure neglect.
Books that deal with climate change as an inclusion of the major part of their plot points are included in the category of climate fiction (also known as Cli-Fi). The representation of the implications that climate change result in in media is important as it helps a message reach across to the common public who consume these films or literature.
Since we, as a collective global community, aren’t educated enough on the topic of climate change and global warming, it is accessible media that brings us closer to this knowledge through simpler visuals and terms. The average person sees climate change as a strange phenomenon that will once in a few hundred years or so completely take away life from planet Earth and beings like us will vanish from existence.
We aren’t aware how the tiny actions and decisions taken by us in our everyday lives are the major cause for this. We do not bear the wisdom it takes to acknowledge that it isn’t some big government or agency or third-party decision taker who will save us from this global stake slowly being pierced into our hearts; it is our own doing that takes us away from harm.
India is a booming nation. It is perhaps one of the biggest geographical sites that is an epicentre for development. There is constant change evolving within the borders, a new corporation, factory or residential complex being set up or planned every few minutes. For a country that is so familiar with change and the rush of life nowadays, the after-effects of these developments ought to be considered. Every step taken contributes to climate change in a small way and with many, many steps, the ticking of the planet’s time bomb becomes louder and faster.
Environmental issues are known to India like the back of her hand. For something so widely known yet ignored within a nation, literary fiction including climate change acts as a giant exclamation mark for missing civic sense. Shouldn’t it be a given, for such a powerful and development-hungry nation, to take actions to prevent their actions from taking away from us what has been provided by this beautiful ball of a planet?
Literature speaking on this topic is a statutory embrace for the community that understands empathy and worldly issues and witnesses the world through a more informed lens. Addressing climate problems in literary lingo, especially in the form of fiction, brings to life the truth but in the creative, crafty guise of stories. From the very start, fiction as a medium of talking to the world has been metaphorical to shouting into a giant megaphone and reaching people who care about good change.
Megha Majumdar published her second novel, “A Guardian and a Thief” in October 2025. Set in the near future showing the city of Kolkata under the attack of a climate strike, it is a tale of Cli-Fi that weaves a beautiful storyline with intricacy and poise while telling the audience how stricken and affected the city acting as the backdrop of it all is by climate change.
The intensity of the happenings in the story are intensified by the sweltering climate that global warming has brought to Kolkata. A city that to many is an abode of comfort and familiarity becomes a location of turmoil and unease. The characters come alive when they talk of the city and the affected area itself is personified to sound like something that comes alive. By addressing the climate-stricken state of Kolkata, Megha Majumdar raises the affect that global warming has had on her hometown in her Oprah-approved novel, expertly mixing the intricacies of her near-alive characters with the dramatics that the unusual climate brings.
Indian English Fiction, abbreviated as IEF, uniquely deals with the approach of environmental issues. It focuses more on the objective descriptions of environment as opposed to the conservation of nature or celebration of environmental beauty that other country’s fiction pinpoints on. Through this specific approach that follows a different route than the pre-defined concepts of other literary pieces focusing on climate change, Indian fiction advocates for how the turning point of our planet’s working, mostly toppled over due to human actions, has led us to an undesired state.
Through words that surpass souls, Indian fiction writers hold the flame strongly over our heads to guide us to where their light leads- to complete and total awakening.
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