Written in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as the 45th president of the United States, Radical Hope is an inspiring collection of thirty-one original letters composed by a wide range of leading contemporary voices, including award-winning novelists, poets, and political thinkers, and compiled by activist and novelist Carolina De Robertis.
Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times not only addresses the tumult of our present political climate, but offers eternal words of wisdom for generations of readers to come.The thirty-one original letters and essays written for this anthology (plus the essay by Junot Díaz that inspired the title) are woven into a passionate narrative, and divided into three sections: “Roots” explores the histories that bring us to this moment, with many letters addressed to ancestors; “Branches” addresses present-day people or communities—a stranger in the supermarket, Baby Boomers, Millennials, white people, artists, the protestors at Standing Rock—and delves into complex questions of our current era; and, finally, “Seeds” looks to the future by speaking to new generations, to sons and daughters, to godchildren, or to imagined children yet to be born, all of them inheritors of what happens now. Radical Hope is a salve, a balm, a compass, a rallying cry, a lyrical manifesto, a power source, and a torch to light the way forward. Provocative and inspiring, this anthology offers readers a kaleidoscopic view of the love and courage needed to navigate this time of upheaval, uncertainty, and fear.