Even If Everything Ends

By: Jens Liljestrand

Narrated by: Matt Addis, Tamsin Kennard, Joe Jameson, Imogen Wilde

Life goes on in the face of a climate crisis in this unforgettable, “relevant, and entertaining” (Fredrik Backman, New York Times bestselling author) debut novel that follows four characters as they struggle to survive in a burning world.

Even when the climate crisis escalates beyond our worst nightmares and people become refugees, the world keeps turning and life carries on as usual: teenage love stories, marital collapses, identity crises, and rebellions against hopeless parents continue to play out.

Didrik is a forty-year-old media consultant whose misguided efforts to become the family hero render him a pathetic vision of incompetence. Melissa is an influencer with a suitcase full of lost dreams after denying climate change for years. André is the nineteen-year-old loser son of an international sports star who uses the erupting violence around him to orchestrate his own personal vengeance on his negligent father. And Vilja is Didrik’s teenage daughter who steps into a leadership role in the face of adult ineptitude.

“A devilish twist on climate fiction” (Publishers Weekly), The Burning eloquently illustrates a picture of a very near future that is at once extraordinary and entirely realistic.

The Burning was previously published as Even If Everything Ends.

Critic reviews

"Matt Addis makes the anger and impatience in Didrik’s voice visceral as he tries to save his family as Europe burns—even while planning to end his marriage. Tamsin Kennard, as podcaster Melissa, also tells her story with impatience. In this case, it emphasizes her narcissism. Joe Jameson gives André, son of a former tennis star, a voice that alternates between needing Dad’s approval and plotting a way to get out from under the weight of his expectations. Imogen Wilde, as the voice of Didrik’s daughter, Vilja, balances impatience with the adults’ incompetence and her own belief in a viable future despite the present climate reality."

The fourth section makes the book worth it

If you don't enjoy unlikeable narrators, you might want to skip this one because it's only the last section who has a likeable one.

If this were a shorter book, the 3 unlikeable narrators may have been more tolerable. We start off with the father, and it's ok for a couple of hours but then becomes tedious as he, his wife, teenaged daughter (the 4th section's narrator), son, and infant daughter escape the fire. He's interesting but his...issues...just become too much. I started scrubbing forward.

Melissa is intolerable (second section) and I scrubbed forward a lot.

Anders is awful but interesting enough until he becomes completely horrendous. More fast forwarding.

Villia (sp?) is the only one I could stand to listen to all the way though. She's completely different from how the dad sees her in the first section and this section was really interesting.

The four narratives are all interconnected (to a greater or lesser degree) so I didn't want to completely skip the middle two but the degree to which most of the characters are horrid was a bit overwhelming.

If the writing had not been so stellar, I would have given up entirely in the first section. At least the dad has SOME redeeming qualities and to varying degrees you understand why he feels and thinks as he does. If the book had started with Melissa or Anders, I would have quit after a half an hour.

I'm guessing that those who don't have issues with unlikable narrators will rate this a 4 or 5. The climate change aspect was very prevalent and interesting.