To the Editor:

My wife and I have just finished reading what I think may be the most significant novel of the century.

Entitled Ultimatum, written by Matthew Glass and published last year by HarperCollins, it is set in 2032-33. Its central theme is the threat of global warming, which, by that time, has already caused serious damage to the environment on many parts of the globe and forced millions to evacuate the affected areas. But a newly elected U.S. president learns that unless global action is taken quickly to cut carbon emissions drastically there will be unimaginable catastrophe.

Of course, action on the scale required will be painful socially, economically and politically — and, therefore, extremely difficult to achieve, especially in the world's two leading emitters of carbon, the United States itself and China.

That's all I'm going to disclose about the plot, except to say that Glass unfolds it in gripping prose, so that the book is worth reading simply for its entertainment value. What makes this novel so important, though, is that it may well be prophetic, in broad terms if not in many of its details. For that reason, I would like to see it read not just by millions of “ordinary” people but also by politicians in and out of office in every corner of the globe.

It's hard to get one's hands on Ultimatum just now, but I understand a paperback edition will be out in the fall. Watch for it.

Peter Hepher

Creston