The Future Library Project

I learnt something new this weekend.

Whilst listening to a podcast with David Mitchell about his latest book, Utopia Avenue, he was asked about a not-yet-published book, called From Me Flows What You Call Time. It turns out this is a book he was invited to write by artist Katie Paterson for her Future Library Project (Framtidsbiblioteket).

Paterson, is a Scottish born artist well-known for her monumental projects that 'consider our place on earth in the context of geological time and change.' Her work includes broadcasting the sound of a glacier melting (2007-2008), mapping all the dead stars (2009), sending a recast meteorite back into space (2012-2014), and creating a cosmic colour wheel that captures all the colours of the universe throughout its existence (2019).

The Future Library is an artwork 100 years in the making, in Oslo, Norway. It's a 'living, breathing, organic artwork, unfolding over one hundred years.'

In May 2014, Paterson planted 1000 Norwegian spruce trees in Nordmarka, a forested area north of Oslo. It's a protected green space cared for by foresters within the Agency of Urban Environment. Hikers are encouraged to walk through the forest.

The city of Oslo has guaranteed it's support for this project during the entire 100 years via the Future Library Trust as part of their Slow Space Curatorial Vision for Oslo Harbour.

However, the artwork is not simply about growing and nurturing an urban forest. Between 2014 and 2114, 100 popular writers will be invited to submit an original manuscript to the archive. The manuscript will not be printed and published until 2114.

In 2114, the manuscripts will printed in limited edition anthologies using paper made from the 1000 Norwegian spruce planted by Paterson.

The manuscripts will be stored in a specially designed Silent Room in the New Deichman Library. The room will be panelled with wood from the forest and will display the names and the titles of each artist's work.

Year by year, the writers' words forming invisible chapters in the trees whose narratives will be reconstituted a century later.

During spring of every year, a special ceremony will take place where the author hands over their work to the project. It is a ritual designed to be repeated for the next 100 years. It begins with a walk into the forest with the author, who then gives a reading. The handover ceremony ends at the library, where the author participates in an 'in-conversation' event.

Due to Covid-19, this year's handover ceremony with Karl Ove Knausgård, the first Norwegian to be invited to write for the project, has been delayed until the 5th of September.

So far the project has works by the following authors.

2014 – Margaret Atwood, Scribbler Moon, submitted 27 May 2015.
2015 – David Mitchell, From Me Flows What You Call Time, submitted 28 May 2016
2016 – Sjón, As My Brow Brushes On The Tunics Of Angels or The Drop Tower, the Roller Coaster, the Whirling Cups and other Instruments of Worship from the Post-Industrial Age, submitted 2 June 2017
2017 – Elif Shafak, The Last Taboo, submitted 2 June 2018
2018 – Han Kang, Dear Son, My Beloved, submitted 25 May 2019
2019 – Karl Ove Knausgård

I'm disappointed that I will never get to read these stories. 

However, I do embrace the hope that this project embodies. That human beings will still be around in 100 years time, in a world still populated with forests of trees. And that these future human beings will still value reading and art.

The mandate is to compassionately sustain the artwork for its 100-year duration. The foresters have a big part to play, they tend to the trees. It’s my dream project because it’s got every aspect of what I like – the collaboration with authors, foresters and librarians. And it operates on slower time. It’s not this rush to make something for a deadline. It’s really nice to let something organically evolve. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Smile & Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

Smile and Sisters have been two very popular books at work with 11-14 year old girls. Now I see why. Raina Telgemeier has created two very personal, engaging stories from two significant events in her pre-teen years. Smile details her rather horrific orthodontic work, while Sisters not only features her relationship with her younger sister, but explores a period of time in her early teen years when their parents marriage was on the rocks.

Most of us have a ghastly orthodontist story from our childhood, but not many readers would be able to take on Telgemeier's lengthy, painful and traumatic experiences in the dental chair. Via her and artwork, Telgemeier shows us the ordinariness of teen life as well as the individual self-consciousness that infects most teens anywhere in the world. She explores image, belonging (I was so glad when she finally moved on from that first group of friends - they were awful) and embracing who you are.

It was a surprisingly touching coming of age story with bucket loads of courage and perseverance.

Sisters wasn't quite as success to my mind. Here Telgemeier explores why her relationship with her sister may have been strained throughout their younger years. It felt believable and authentic, but also a little like she was stretching to find another book.

We've all had those challenging relationships with siblings at different times, when two very different personalities constantly rub up against each in daily family life. Sometimes things improve when you're no longer living together under the one roof; sometimes things don't.

But the thing that can bring you together is shared fear and shared adversity - when you think your parents may be about to split up.

In this case, Raina gave her sister a draft of this story several years prior to publication for approval. She also allowed Amara a chance to share insights into her side of the story.

I'm not normally a big fan of graphic novels, but these two books were easy to read and I really liked the colourful artwork. The simple designs were capable of conveying quite a lot of emotion.

Smile was the winner of the Eisner Award for Best Publication for a Teen Audience in 2011 and a finalist for the Children’s Choice Book Award.

Sisters won the Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist in 2015.

Books 15 & 16 of my #20BooksofSummer (winter) challenge - drop-in titles
25℃ in Sydney
16℃ in Northern Ireland
I read these books during the July #reversereadathon

Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neerven

One of the things I love about the new Stella Prize is that it encourages me to read authors & books that I might otherwise overlook.

Heat and Light had slipped under my radar last year, but when it was shortlisted I did a little research and found some very interesting reviews.

I dived in with great anticipation. An anticipation that quickly moved onto enjoyment and excitement at finding such a wonderful new voice in the Australian literary arena.

The only problem is I lost my notes!

This book is divided into three very distinct sections.
As I usually read several books at once, this structure allowed me to put this book down between sections to savour the story, & read something different, before coming back for the next section.

I wrote my thoughts about each section on the bookmark I was using. It is now gone.  Lost.
And my thoughts were beautiful, literary pearls of wisdom!

Ellen van Neerven has an interesting background. She is from the Yugambeh people of the Gold Coast with Dutch heritage. Her stories & writing style reflect this curious diversity.

Heat is about Pearl, an Aboriginal woman who doesn't know where she belongs.The story is told from her extended family's point of view as they all struggle with their own sense of identity & belonging.

Water was my favourite of the sections.
Set in the near future with a major environmental crisis looming & frightening political double-speak the norm, a new species of plantpeople are earmarked for extinction.
Water is sexy, disturbing & very provocative - I couldn't put it down.

The final section, Light, consists of ten unconnected short stories, that again, feature themes of belonging & family.

Van Neerven's writing is light & easy on the surface but hidden layers and complexities of emotion bubble up when you least expect them.
I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.


This review is part of my Australian Women Writer's Challenge.

Stand Up and Cheer by Loretta Re

One of the many pleasures of being a bookseller, is meeting the authors and attending their book launches.

I've known about this little gem based on real life events in Albury, NSW for a while now.

Loretta lives locally and a year or so ago, she popped into our bookshop to discuss publication options and, eventually, cover design options.

Due to the regional nature of her story, Re's manuscript was rejected by several major publishers. In the end, her friend, Juliet, from The Wild Colonial Company, decided to publish it for her.

This week we had the Sydney launch of Stand Up and Cheer (the Albury launch was October last year). Juliet & author Sue Woolfe introduced Loretta and her book to a packed house, followed by the usual festivities and book signings.

Stand Up and Cheer is dear to my heart because Mr Books grew up in Albury & the story of the Dutch plane, Uiver's sudden landing in Albury in 1934 during the great round the world air race is a well-known town tale.

Even though we already knew how the story ended, Re created a lovely piece of tense writing that had me on the edge of my seat!

This is a small country town story, but its heart encompasses the whole world.

A truly great book, with a message worth saying, will transcend its setting. Stand Up and Cheer does this by emboding the universal themes of courage (physical & moral), friendship & innovation.

It's well-written, with oodles of great details that reflect just how much research time Re put into this book. The inside covers include photographs from the time & the end notes reveal the impact the abrupt landing had on the Netherlands as well.

A thoroughly enjoyable and absorbing tale for mature 9+ readers & for plane enthusiasts & Biggles lovers of any age the world over!

Euphoria by Lily King

Is it history, is it fiction, is it memoir?

As it turns out, Euphoria is a little bit of each.

Euphoria is a story loosely based on the life of Margaret Mead. And when I say, life, I actually mean one small section of her life.

And when I say loosely, I mean very!

King writes about the few months that Mead shared in New Guinea on the Sepik River with her second husband Reo Fortune and soon-to-be third husband, Gregory Bateson.

Knowing this, I expected the story to run along similar lines to Mead's real life story. But, no, it does not - especially in one fairly major, important way (which you will have to discover for yourself!)

The story is also not really about Mead.
Most of the story is told from  Bateson's point of view. It is his back story that we learn about and we see Margaret, her work & her marriage to Fortune, through his eyes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story - fact and fiction. And I read it in a few quick, compulsive sessions.
I've had a thing for Margaret Mead ever since my Yr 6 school project on her which left me with a desire to be an anthropologist. So all the details about their life in New Guinea, studying and living with the various groups & how they worked was fascinating to me.

I loved how King wove in concerns about how Westerners changed the cultures they were observing simply by being there, the nature of observation, subjective and objective & how some cultures resisted, evaded or deliberately deceived Western observers. And does the observation process actually show us more (as Bateson suggests) about the anthropologist than the tribe?

All fascinating ideas to be explored; all deftly & lightly done by King.

But as King wrote her three main characters, I struggled to find much to like or even admire in them.

I also struggled with their names.
The three main characters all had different names (Nell Stone, Schulyer Fenwick & Andrew Bankson) and the tribes they were working with in New Guinea had different names, but everyone else had their real names - Bateson's family & fellow anthrolopolgists, especially.

For me, it confused the issue about what was real and what wasn't...although maybe that was the whole point?

I'm not sure I'm as keen as I once was to know more about Mead, although her daughter with Bateson has written a memoir that does sound tempting. Maybe seeing them through the loving but, anthropologist trained eyes of their daughter, will leave me with a more sympathetic view of them.

Gap by Rebecca Jessen

Another day; another verse novel.

This time set in Queenland with more of a YA feel to it.

Gap won the 2013 Queensland Literary Award for Jessen as Best Emerging Author.

A few years ago I would never have thought that verse novels were my thing. But thanks to some fabulous Aussie children's writers like Steven Herrick and Emma Cameron I have been converted.

Jessen also cites Dorothy Porter as one her inspirations; another award winning Aussie poet well-known for verse novels, who I have recently 'discovered'.

Jessen's novel is a story about the young people who fall through the cracks in our society (which does seem to be a common theme for the verse novels that I've read so far.)

Ana's life has been spent on the run, on the wrong side of the tracks. But in an effort to help her kid sister from falling into the same trap, Ana cleans herself up and takes over caring for her sister when their dysfunctional mother kicks her out too. But things don't always go to plan.

An old school romance is rekindled when the female cop who knocks on Ana's door one night turns out to be an old love. But can she save Ana from her past, her mother and years of bad associations?

I pile in
more stuff
necessary
for a quick exit

Indie grabs me
demands a reason
for this
onset
of madness

'Ana' she says
holding both my arms

'Are you in trouble
is that it?'
I can't leave
what about my exams?

'Shit' I sigh
sinking into the couch
head in hands

Indie sits
wraps an arm
around me

is this what I call
looking out
for my kid sister?

Not as powerful or as raw with gritty emotion as Porter's work (although to my mind, Porter has set the bar very high!), but Gap is a very worthy attempt by an emerging young writer. I'll be curious to see what Jessen does next.

This post is part of my Australian Women Writers challenge.