In 2019, German journalist Wolf Harlander writes an environmental thriller about an endless heatwave of such intensity that wildfires are ravaging Western Europe and rivers, lakes and reservoirs are drying up. The population is simply running out of water.
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In 2022, when the French translation of 42 degrees, Europe, hit by a severe drought, sees its forests burn and its waterways atrophy. For the escape, it will be necessary to iron. On the other hand, we must salute the clairvoyance of the author. His disaster scenario almost materialized.
Apart from its ecological component, 42 degrees follows the classic codes of the genre: a young woman expert in computer science (a data analyst) and a student (in hydrology) who sound the alarm and seek to prevent a tragedy while the authorities prefer to turn a blind eye.
There are villains, of course, who want to take advantage of the situation to further their own interests. There are ambushes, manhunts, escapes.
It is in depicting the tragic consequences of the drought, however, that the value of the novel lies. Life in one of the most favored countries on the planet, Germany, changes dramatically and the veneer of civilization peels off when good citizens watch their children die of thirst.
After reading, you no longer see your glass of water in the same way.
42 degrees
Wolf Harlander
Editions Herve Chopin
538 pages