In Burning Sky, three generations of a family confront the life-and-death challenge of global warming. The first, a cantankerous climatologist, raises the alarm. The second, a brilliant scientist with a lust for power that spawns a dictatorship, constructs “the Cocoon,” a stratospheric shield to deflect sunlight. When it cuts the Earth off from the blue sky and majestic stars and plunges our planet into an eternal miasmic fog, it is up to the third generation—the very son and daughter of the scientist—to try to overthrow him and dismantle his pernicious works.
In aiming to undo the damage of their ancestors, perhaps the younger generation can set humanity on a wiser course.

John Darnton will be in conversation with author David Grann.