(Tímakistan, 2013)
More fairy tale than fantasy, The Casket of Time presents us with a familiar world, where people harangue themselves with worry about “the situation” while doing naught to amend it. Meanwhile, their children are left to ponder the mess their parents have made of the planet.
When a mysterious company starts selling caskets that you can use to wait out the bad times (“No more Mondays! No more February!”), these TimeBoxes are a huge success. Centuries later, the children begin to awaken in their tombs, only to discover that nature has reclaimed the planet while they slumbered. In the wild, post-apocalyptical landscape that awaits them, they form a colony under the guidance of a mysterious old woman. She tells them the story of Obsidiana, the Princess of Pangea, and her mad father, King Dimon, who wanted to protect his daughter from heartache by hiding her from time itself.
A story within a story, The Casket of Time satirizes the present moment passing before us, as we watch the effect that the global disaster of climate change is having on our planet. To combat this stasis, the book urges drastic and immediate action but also applies a light, humorous touch to avoid the pitfalls of proselytizing or condescending to its readers.