The End of the Ocean is Maja Lunde’s second foray into adult fiction and is a spellbinding read that focuses on the realities of climate change though the eyes of a father and daughter. ... Chillingly frank in its discussion of our planet’s fragile ecological system and the fight to save our basic natural resources, Lunde’s two superbly written interlinking narratives are emotionally charged and the beautifully expressed underlying message of hope, love and forgiveness helps to soften the ominous realties that could befall humanity if nothing is done to reverse the bleak certainties of climate change.

It is 2020. The English translation of Norwegian author Maja Lunde’s sophomore novel, The End of the Ocean, is released as massive fires sweep Australia, destroying communities and ecosystems in their wake, and pumping 400 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Temperatures rise, precipitation patterns shift. Sea levels rise as ice sheets melt. Somehow, we are still calling this science fiction. Lunde’s novel attempts to provide a new way of seeing these horrors, one that recognizes the duality of a humanity that both forged and seeks to remedy their own destruction, sometimes simultaneously ... I aim to review this book rather than reviewing the book that I wish it was ... Climate change and industrialization are undeniably and inextricably tied to imperialism and racism. Limiting the novel’s perspective to the struggle of white Europeans means there is no recognition of this connection; at no point do we witness what is already true about the climate crisis: that some communities are affected more than others, some will be aided more than others, and it is not a cosmic accident that this falls along racial and economic lines. Also, there is something generally tone-deaf about showing the destabilization and dehumanization of a refugee camp without acknowledging who is actually occupying them in 2020 ... Again, not inherently bad, just tone-deaf ... This book was written as a warning and in that way it accomplished its goal. But to say that family is more lasting than community is a lie. To portray an activist movement that is personally destructive and doomed to fail is not only cynical, it’s a denial of our own history. To incite grief for the future while evading the realities of imperialism in our past and present is not, I think, particularly inspired or inspiring. The End of the Ocean is lovingly crafted...and it has much to say about the resilience of humanity—but it is not for me, not in 2020.

...thoughtful and suspenseful ... Both halves of the story are convincingly detailed and quietly wrenching, and Norwegian author Lunde...gradually and subtly draws them together to powerful effect ... Global problems soundly grounded in the particular.