{"id":166318,"date":"2023-12-22T08:30:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T13:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=166318"},"modified":"2023-12-22T08:28:32","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T13:28:32","slug":"on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Vedb\u00e6k, Denmark. MchD, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Halfway through Sven Holm\u2019s taut unfolding nightmare, Termush<\/em>, the unnamed narrator encounters \u201cploughed-up and trampled gardens\u201d where \u201cstone creatures are the sole survivors.\u201d Holm describes these statues as \u201ccurious forms, the bodies like great ill-defined blocks, designed more to evoke a sense of weight and mass than to suggest power in the muscles and sinews.\u201d Later, a guest of the gated, walled hotel for the rich from which the novel takes its name relates a dream in which \u201clight streamed out of every object; it shone through robes and skin and the flesh on the bones, the leaves on the trees \u2026 to reveal the innermost vulnerable marrow of people and plants.\u201d The same could describe the novel, which accrues its strange effects via both this stricken, continuous revealing and the \u201ccurious forms\u201d of a solid, impervious setting, in which the ordinary elements of our world come to seem alien through the lens of nuclear catastrophe. <\/p>\n

Long before the sanctuary of Termush becomes visibly unsafe, these tears at the fringes of reality signify the truth of the narrator\u2019s situation. The very texture of the world becomes unknowable, imbued with a potency, vibration, or sheen that alters reality. Holm\u2019s Termush <\/em>is both a realistic chronicle of a microsociety\u2019s collapse and a surreal journey of a man confronted by crisis, remaking his surroundings as a way of coping.<\/p>\n

The detritus and decisions of the past may still affect our future, in that the threat of nuclear holocaust has not left us, though it is far less pronounced than in the 1960s, when Holm published\u00a0Termush.<\/em>\u00a0But in the interim, other disasters that manifest in largely \u201cinvisible\u201d ways have overtaken us: our fear of radiation and immolation has led to climate crisis fear, which has led to pandemic fear. The grappling of minds with these threats leads to derangement and odd visions, because the elements of infiltration and contamination baffle the brain. Our hauntings in the modern era so often now are not ghosts but simply the things we cannot see\u2014but that radically affect us.<\/p>\n

Little wonder then, that, read now, the lucid logic of Termush <\/em>feels more like lucid dreaming, imbued with a new relevance in which unseen monsters creep through the same rooms as the narrator, studying his movements. The stark deficiencies of emergency management become hyperreal because of the overlay of self-inflictions in our modern times. For Termush\u2014<\/em>unlike some vintage classics, cult or otherwise\u2014has waxed, not waned, in relevance. The accuracy in the calm description of becoming undone by disaster, and the anonymity of place and character, ensure the novel\u2019s timelessness. It\u2019s a curious book in this regard, with its dispassionate prose that eschews, in large part, the sensory detail of taste, touch, and smell, yet gets to the heart of living through such a situation. At that heart is the disconnection that occurs, laid bare by a certain level of detail\u2014or lack of detail. Amid the banal recitation of procedure and the understated but sharp satire about privileged people, such a strong sense of feeling about the world rises from these pages.<\/p>\n

A highly honored literary realist in Denmark, Holm may not have expected or even intended to create a speculative novella that reads so well to a modern audience. His other works contain no such element, but many do feature similar grand gestures, and all <\/em>of them critique modern society, seeking ways to, for lack of a better term, wake the reader up to the evils of capitalism and other consumptive ideologies.<\/p>\n

In its treatment of the aftermath of nuclear war, Termush <\/em>distinguishes itself from the so-called disaster cozies of the fifties, like the novels of John Wyndham, to occupy more urgent territory. In this genre, the dangers of some calamitous situation become entwined with an almost cheery disaster-tourism tone; more importantly, civilization always wins in the end, even if in an altered form. The militias may hold sway for a while, or the plague lay waste to whole towns, but by the novel\u2019s close, equilibrium and balance, logic and order, always return to human endeavors. Not so much in Termush<\/em>, which also eludes, through its particular focus and narrative velocity, echoes of Cold War conflict that otherwise might have dated the novella. Instead of a pervading sense of \u201cthe other\u201d about to storm the gates, Holm delves into the psychology of the holed-up survivors and the hazards of societal breakdown.<\/p>\n

In this sense, and with its surreal touches, Termush <\/em>feels more like a bridge novella between the return-to-normalcy of the cozy and the extravagant, mind-bending dystopias of J.\u00a0G. Ballard, which ushered in the modern era of this kind of fiction. The right excerpt from Termush <\/em>could easily have appeared in New Worlds<\/em>, the seminal sixties magazine for the New Wave, of which Ballard was a part. This speculative movement ably applied a rigorous intellectual attitude and sometimes formally experimental approaches to hybrid fiction; novels that had a gritty, realistic feel while at the same time trading in unsettling images and devastating portrayals of the psychological effects of the wrong future on human minds.<\/p>\n

Holm definitely meant to access the psychological reality of his situation, and the novella contains much subtle character insight, despite his characters often existing at the same sparse level of detail as their surroundings. The hotel doctor, for example, asks a woman for a urine sample to check the guests\u2019 health, but she collapses \u201cacross the table \u2026 in a fit of hysteria,\u201d while repeating that \u201cnothing was wrong with her urine.\u201d In a lesser novel, this would function for the modern reader as a gendered signpost of the times. But Holm proves more insightful, with his narrator\u2019s observation that \u201cthe woman\u2019s reaction is understandable. What is less understandable is the way the rest of us keep such an inflexibly stiff upper lip without relaxing in argument or giving way to laughter or irritation. Her outburst seems to me more natural,\u201d because it means \u201cthat neither her imagination nor her sensibility is gagged and bound, as ours are.\u201d Holm shows that, in trying to cope by stifling such impulses, the very landscape becomes distorted and unfamiliar, while the invisible malady continues to infiltrate and surround the hotel.<\/p>\n

Few dystopian novels focused on a privileged group\u2019s reaction to disaster lack some societal critique, and if Termush<\/em>\u2019s commentary seems basic, well, perhaps the modern monoculture needs to become more complex. As ever\u2014before, during, and after Termush<\/em>\u2014rich people tend to be more able to escape the effects of an event, for the obvious reasons. Yet Holm\u2019s portrayal of radiation refugees storming the hotel has a logic and humanity that is deeply thought-provoking, as the hotel management tries to act ethically, with some guests agreeing to support them and some not. His deft touch inhabits sentences like \u201cThe groaning of the sick people in the library has died down, as if they too were issued with brandy or had been asked not to disturb the festivities on the hotel\u2019s anniversary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late in the novella, as conditions worsen and deepen, the narrator\u2019s imagination widens to contemplate the entirety of what cannot be seen and what has not yet been fully felt within their privileged sanctuary: \u201cWe see the day when the fish leave the water and push through the sand and earth to the trees, where they bite into the bark with their skinless jaws and drag themselves up into the branches to live according to new instincts. We see the trees bare of leaves, festooned with fishy skeletons, their skins rustling like a death-rattle.\u201d From this phantasmagorical beginning, the narrator\u2019s vision spreads outward to encompass the Earth and the humans within it. While Termush <\/em>admirably conveys the reality of living through nuclear apocalypse, Holm\u2019s triumph lies in conveying the psychological strangeness and derangement of such a situation. If the novella can be termed a kind of classic, it is for these unexpected and unique elements, which are, in a sense, more real than reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fear is no longer a fear of death but of change and mutation,\u201d Holm writes.<\/p>\n

Onward, to Termush! Perhaps, one way or another, we can make it there in time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeff VanderMeer\u00a0is the author of\u00a0<\/em>Hummingbird Salamander, the\u00a0<\/em>Borne novels (<\/em>Borne,\u00a0<\/em>The Strange Bird, and\u00a0<\/em>Dead Astronauts), and\u00a0<\/em>The Southern Reach Trilogy (<\/em>Annihilation,\u00a0Authority, and\u00a0<\/em>Acceptance), the first volume of which won the Nebula Award and the Shirley Jackson Award and was adapted into a movie by Alex Garland. He speaks and writes frequently about issues relating to climate change as well as urban rewilding. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, on the edge of a ravine, with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, and their cat, Neo.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe very texture of the world becomes unknowable, imbued with a potency, vibration, or sheen that alters reality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68386],"tags":[12670,28286,200],"class_list":["post-166318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-reviews-review","tag-jeff-vandermeer","tag-nuclear-holocaust","tag-science-fiction"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOn Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster by Jeff VanderMeer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 22, 2023 \u2013 \u201cThe very texture of the world becomes unknowable, imbued with a potency, vibration, or sheen that alters reality.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster by Jeff VanderMeer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 22, 2023 \u2013 \u201cThe very texture of the world becomes unknowable, imbued with a potency, vibration, or sheen that alters reality.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-22T13:30:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2293\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1126\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff VanderMeer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff VanderMeer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeff VanderMeer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/01bea538fd2a2d64f1b8d42e42dbd2ff\"},\"headline\":\"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-22T13:30:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/\"},\"wordCount\":1489,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1-1024x503.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Jeff Vandermeer\",\"nuclear holocaust\",\"science fiction\"],\"articleSection\":[\"The Review\u2019s Review\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/\",\"name\":\"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster by Jeff VanderMeer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1-1024x503.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-22T13:30:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 22, 2023 \u2013 \u201cThe very texture of the world becomes unknowable, imbued with a potency, vibration, or sheen that alters reality.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1.jpg\",\"width\":2293,\"height\":1126,\"caption\":\"MchD, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/01bea538fd2a2d64f1b8d42e42dbd2ff\",\"name\":\"Jeff VanderMeer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe433092135fb1ad32d6dd18b94fe3feb10cdddcf9ba3154b3255b4eb003299c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe433092135fb1ad32d6dd18b94fe3feb10cdddcf9ba3154b3255b4eb003299c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeff VanderMeer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/jvandermeer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster by Jeff VanderMeer","description":"December 22, 2023 \u2013 \u201cThe very texture of the world becomes unknowable, imbued with a potency, vibration, or sheen that alters reality.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster by Jeff VanderMeer","og_description":"December 22, 2023 \u2013 \u201cThe very texture of the world becomes unknowable, imbued with a potency, vibration, or sheen that alters reality.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2023-12-22T13:30:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2293,"height":1126,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeff VanderMeer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeff VanderMeer","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeff VanderMeer","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/01bea538fd2a2d64f1b8d42e42dbd2ff"},"headline":"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster","datePublished":"2023-12-22T13:30:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/"},"wordCount":1489,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1-1024x503.jpg","keywords":["Jeff Vandermeer","nuclear holocaust","science fiction"],"articleSection":["The Review\u2019s Review"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/","name":"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster by Jeff VanderMeer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1-1024x503.jpg","datePublished":"2023-12-22T13:30:51+00:00","description":"December 22, 2023 \u2013 \u201cThe very texture of the world becomes unknowable, imbued with a potency, vibration, or sheen that alters reality.\u201d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2950-vedbaek-denmark-panoramio-2-1.jpg","width":2293,"height":1126,"caption":"MchD, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/on-sven-holms-novella-of-nuclear-disaster\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On Sven Holm\u2019s Novella of Nuclear Disaster"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/01bea538fd2a2d64f1b8d42e42dbd2ff","name":"Jeff VanderMeer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe433092135fb1ad32d6dd18b94fe3feb10cdddcf9ba3154b3255b4eb003299c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe433092135fb1ad32d6dd18b94fe3feb10cdddcf9ba3154b3255b4eb003299c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeff VanderMeer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/jvandermeer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166318"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166374,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166318\/revisions\/166374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}