A tale about New England resilience under the challenge of climate change. In 2022, Abby leaves her husband and a promising medical career to become a country doctor and seek a better future for herself and her nine-year-old son, Bill. They leave behind a NY city that is increasingly chaotic to move to a cooperative community in the village of Williams Hill in rural Massachusetts.
Following a series of weather disasters, the New England Carbon Rebellion has severely restricted the use of fossil fuels. Everything changes as transportation, education, and agriculture adapt to alternative sources of energy. What would such a new society look like? How can we build a way of life that does not depend on a disastrous carbon footprint?
Green Valley is a novel about such a changed society that treads a narrow path along the precipice of climate change into a viable future. Ipsen avoids the cliché of a utopia, but describes the dramatic steps that must be taken very soon if we are to have hope and avoid the dystopian end of civilization predicted by the typical cli-fi novel.
