In 2019 Wisconsin author Jeffrey Boldt saw a young mother and her daughter protesting against “climate inaction” as part of Greta Thunberg’s campaign of environmental awareness. “It was beautiful, almost quixotic, and they're in my novel,” he says. Boldt’s novel, Big Lake Troubles, was praised by Kirkus Reviews as “one of the best legal thrillers of the year.”
Boldt will discuss Big Lake Troubles at Boswell Book Company, 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24.
“Their idealism inspired me to write a realistic but optimistic novel that brought the climate crisis home to a specific local area, namely Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest,” Boldt continues. “For example, the air quality issues from the Canadian wildfires of 2023 are in my new book.”
Big Lake Troubles concerns a former judge, living in comfortable retirement, who finds himself drawn into a case involving a coal company without scruples. The novel arrives at a troubling time for environmentalism. Written during the Biden years, the story gains new urgency.
“The election results are very concerning,” Boldt says. “Mr. Trump is a climate change denier and has received record donations from the fossil fuel industry. He’s stuck in nostalgia for the ‘80s and wants to ‘drill baby drill’ even as U.S. oil production is at historic highs. President Trump has already taken the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords again, and he’s threatening to end the very successful clean energy tax credits that have benefitted corporations large and small, and especially red states.”
And as for coal, the industry at the heart of Big Lake Troubles, the new administration sounds determined to keep that 19th century technology alive until the last seam is mined. However, Boldt remains optimistic about the future. “A friend of mine, UW-Milwaukee Prof. Melissa Scanlan, wrote a wonderful book a couple of years ago about how co-operatives have been successful around the world in working toward a fossil-free but still prosperous economy. We all have to redouble our individual efforts as well, and must try to stay resilient and optimistic, despite the strong headwinds against us.”
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Get Big Lake Troubles at Amazon here.
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