''Scenes from the Heart'' ( sv, Scener ur hjärtat) is a 2018 book by Swedish opera singer

Malena Ernman Sara Magdalena Ernman (born 4 November 1970) is a Swedish opera singer. Besides operas and operettas, she has also performed chansons, cabaret, jazz, and appeared in musicals. She is a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Ernman repres ...

, her husband

Svante Thunberg Svante Fritz Vilhelm Thunberg (born 10 June 1969) is a Swedish actor, author, and father of climate activist Greta Thunberg. With his wife, he wrote a memoir, ''Scenes from the Heart'' (2018), later updated as ''Our House is on Fire'' (2020). ...

, and their daughters,

climate activist The climate movement is a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action (also called "climate action") addressing the causes and Effects of climate change, impacts of climate change. environmental movement, ...

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Thunberg's activism began when she persuaded ...

and Beata Ernman. It consists of three main chapters, divided into several subchapters, and opens with the poem " Elegi" from the poetry collection '' Ty'' by

Werner Aspenström Karl Werner Aspenström (13 November 1918 – 25 January 1997) was a Swedish poet. Born at Norrbärke, he was a member of the Swedish Academy, where he held Seat 12 from 1981 to 1997. Following his breakthrough in 1949 with ''Snölegend ...

. The book is written as an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

. The reader follows Malena Ernman and her family as they tour Europe for Ernman's singing career. The book details elder daughter Greta's background and family life before she started her school strike climate campaign, as well as her diagnosis of

Asperger's syndrome Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's, is a former neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behav ...

. It also addresses Greta's younger sister Beata's

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inap ...

(ADHD), and the family's struggle to deal with their daughters' diagnoses. In the book, the girls' mother concludes that Asperger's and ADHD are "not a handicap" so much as a "superpower." The book has been translated into German. In the original Swedish edition, only Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg are credited as authors. Greta has been given top credit in new editions, and her photo is on the cover of the German edition. The book was translated into English by Paul Norlen and

Saskia Vogel Saskia Maria Desiree Vogel (born September 17, 1981) is an American author and translator. ''Permission'', her debut novel, was published in English, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish in 2019 and has been optioned for television. She has translated ...

and an updated version with contributions from the girls, and the whole family credited as authors, was published under the title ''Our House Is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis'' by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. Paperback edition.

*Chapter 1: ''Behind the Curtain'' *Chapter 2: ''Burned-out Humans on a Burned-out Planet'' *Chapter 3: ''Imagine if Life is Real and Everything We Do Means Something''

Contents

See also

References

Further reading