Melanie Challenger Ordre des livres (chronologique)

This "hybrid of travelogue and natural science" by an award-winning author is "truly poetic"—now revised with a new introduction and featuring the voices of young activists advocating for a new relationship with our planet (The New York Times Book Review). In the Anthropocene, our species has become the primary cause of extinction and significant planetary changes. In her twenties, Melanie Challenger embarked on journeys to explore her estrangement from nature and the resulting transformations. Her travels included an abandoned mine in England, an Antarctic sea voyage, South Georgia's old whaling stations, South America, and an Inuit community in Canada, revealing connections between human activity and the living world. These experiences evolved into a meditation on extinction, examining how losses affect us and their significance. The work blends travelogue with environmental history, incorporating insights from anthropologists, biologists, and philosophers. Challenger draws on their wisdom, firsthand experiences, and ancestral memory to trace the mindset behind our destructiveness while proposing a path of redemption rooted in emotional responses. This sobering yet illuminating exploration looks beyond natural devastation to consider what lies ahead.

Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive and baffling animals on the planet. But how well do we really know ourselves?How to Be Animal offers a radical take on what it means to be human and argues that at the heart of our psychology is a profound struggle with being animal. Tracing the history of this thinking through to its far-reaching effects on our lives, and drawing on a range of disciplines, Challenger proposes that being an animal is a process, beautiful and unpredictable, and that we have a chance to tell ourselves a new story; to realise that if we matter, so does everything else.

Rok 1992 prožila Zlata Filipović v úkrytu v Sarajevu. Deník, který si začala psát jako bezstarostná dvanáctiletá dívka, se stal deníkem válečným – záznamem zkázy, která ji obklopovala, a svědectvím o životě dítěte ve městě pod palbou. Zlatin deník nakonec vyšel knižně v 35 jazycích a dodnes se čte na školách po celém světě. Její životní zkušenost stála u zrodu unikátního projektu. Společně s Melanie Challenger strávila Zlata Filipović poslední dva roky sbíráním válečných deníků z celého světa, z nichž mnohé nikdy nebyly publikovány nebo byly dávno zapomenuté. Jejich autory jsou děti či mladí lidé do dvaadvaceti let, kteří od roku 1914 do současnosti zažili nejrůznější válečné konflikty, války občanské nebo světové. Soubor válečných deníků, jenž se Zlatě Filipović společně s Melanií Challenger podařilo shromáždit a který nyní vychází pod názvem Umlčené hlasy i v češtině, zachycuje univerzální zkušenost mladých lidí s válkou, ať už se odehrává kdykoliv a kdekoliv. Deníky jsou svědkem jejich zoufalství, zmatenosti, pocitů nespravedlnosti a bolesti, ale i každodenních událostí, snahy žít normálním životem, dospívání, naděje, humoru, plánů do budoucna... Ačkoliv tyto zkušenosti pocházejí z různých míst světa a zahrnují období téměř celého století, jako by spolu mluvily, soucítily spolu a zněly jedním hlasem ukradeného dětství a mládí, které se nikdy nevrátí.

In a voice both innocent and wise, Zlata Filipovic's diary has awakened the world's conscience. At thirteen, she began her diary just before her eleventh birthday, when Sarajevo was peaceful and her life was that of a carefree young girl. Her early entries describe friends, family, school, and her interest in joining the Madonna Fan Club. However, everything changes when she sees bombs falling on Dubrovnik. Initially unable to imagine such violence in her own city, Zlata's tone shifts dramatically when the conflict reaches Sarajevo. She begins an entry to "Dear Mimmy," her deceased goldfish, with stark words: "SLAUGHTERHOUSE! MASSACRE! HORROR! CRIMES! BLOOD! SCREAMS! DESPAIR!" Her world becomes increasingly confined to her family's apartment, where she spends nights in a neighbor's cellar as shells rain down. With no school, limited water and electricity, and food shortages, the war invades her life, destroying her childhood and affecting her family deeply. Zlata expresses that "War has nothing to do with humanity" and contemplates suicide. Yet, with remarkable courage and clarity, she clings to her former life, studying piano, reading, and celebrating special occasions, documenting it all in her extraordinary diary.