In 2015, a massive avalanche descended on the small Arctic Norwegian city of Longyearbyen, Svalbard, leveling eleven houses and killing a two-year-old girl and a young father. It was a tragic natural disaster but one that was becoming increasingly and alarmingly common for citizens of Svalbard, like journalist Line Nagell YlvisAker. In her arresting book My World Is Melting, YlvisAker explores the effects of a warming planet up close and personal, from inside a remote community intimately attuned to its environment. YlvisAker introduces readers to her friends and neighbors, including dedicated meteorologists racing to anticipate future disasters and a veteran trapper who harbors doubts about climate change even as he bears witness to a constantly shifting landscape. Blending memoir, long-form journalism, and scientific reportage, she provides an intimate picture of life in a place where the effects of climate change can be seen in all their startling reality-and a compelling and hopeful argument for collective and cooperative action across the globe.
Line Nagell YlvisAker is an editor, journalist, and nonfiction writer living in the high Arctic. From 2006 to 2018, she worked for the newspaper Svalbardposten, where she received several awards for her writing about Svalbard; since 2023, she has served as Svalbardposten's editor in chief. She holds a master's degree from the University of Oslo and lectures on climate change throughout Norway. Kelsey Camacho is a writer and translator who guides expeditions in the polar regions, cares for sled dogs, and leads local writing workshops. Her work can be found in Nowhere Magazine, Bitch Media, Entropy, Portland Review, and elsewhere. Originally from North Carolina, she's based in Longyearbyen, Svalbard.
Preface Falling Down A Black, Wet Autumn and New Avalanches Sleep, Little Sprout Climate on Speed The Town The Trapper and the Pope Essential Stardust The Mountain Trees of Stone A Great Paradox Royal Unrest The Sea, the Fjords, and the Ice That Disappeared Plants in Ice and Permafrost Almost a Gummy Bear Grandmother in the Snowstorm Can't Make Everything Safe Into Safe Houses Three Years After Surviving the Avalanche Afterword Update: The Warmest Summer Acknowledgments Sources
Praise for the Norwegian edition: "Vivid literary nonfiction-filled with poetic, striking and surprising images."-Dagbladet "In YlvisAker's book, the personal experience of the environmental changes is an excellent framework for communicating. . . . This easy-to-read and engaging book should have great potential to create understanding for the seriousness of the situation."-Klassekampen "A documentary page turner."-AltsA magazine Praise for the German edition: "A story of the climate crisis that is as instructive as it is captivating."-Su?ddeutsche Zeitung "A gripping, forceful plea against the climate catastrophe."-3SAT "Kulturzeit" "A report from the front on the fight against climate change, enlightening and touching."-Focus
