From Denmark to the World: Why I Wrote MALI

In 2019, two stories collided in my mind.

The first was everywhere on the news in 2015: families from Syria, Afghanistan, and beyond crossing seas, trudging through fields, and waiting at borders. They were fleeing war, drought, and collapse. In Denmark and across Europe, we debated whether they were “migrants” or “refugees.” We argued about numbers and quotas. We built fences. And somewhere in the noise, I wondered: What if it were us?

The second story came from science in 2019. That same year, a study from the Potsdam Institute revealed that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) — the ocean current that keeps Northern Europe’s climate mild — was at its weakest in over 1,000 years. The researchers warned it could weaken further, perhaps even collapse within decades.

That “what if” and that science fused into an unsettling vision: Northern Europe plunged into sudden, lethal cold. Crops failing. Power grids failing. Millions fleeing south, into a world already strained by heat and drought. That vision became MALI, the first book in my Victims of Hothouse Earth series.

In MALI, the AMOC abruptly shuts down, turning Northern Europe into a deep freeze. Those who once lived in safety must now become refugees, facing the same walls and suspicion we once justified against others.

I wrote MALI because I believe fiction can make climate change personal. Science can show us the data, but stories can make us live the consequences.

From Denmark to the world, this is my warning: the roles we play in the refugee story can change overnight. And when they do, we’ll discover whether we’ve built walls… or bridges.