Weather

Fostering hope, against all odds. Lizzie, a librarian, who is the protagonist of Weather, by Jenny Offill, Knopf Publishing Group, knows something about this. It is a time of climate disasters. And of widespread anxiety that Lizzy approaches with good humour and pragmatism, amid family tensions and social problems: We read about how, at work, she leafs through articles on the psychology of catastrophes, hoping she will be able to help the people she sees wandering about as though lost. Much of the population appears to be depressed and numbed, gathered in small anxious groups and susceptible to rumours about the end of the world. But then she realises that, in her world, it’s more or less like that every day. The Covid-19 pandemic had not yet struck when Offill wrote this book. But, quite apart from the news of the moment, the best literature always catches the spirit of its day. Her writing style is tense, fragmented, and on edge, painting an extraordinary picture of how difficult, despite everything, our need to be human can be. Tempo variabile Jenny Offill NN Editore, 2020