In A Map of Future Ruins, Lauren Markham masterfully intertwines her family’s intimate migration story with the broader forces of global upheaval. By tracing her lineage through waves of displacement, Markham uses contemporary Greece as a reflective crossroads—a place where climate catastrophe, mass migration, and questions of identity collide with stark clarity. Her evocative prose transforms this Mediterranean landscape into a prism for exploring humanity’s most urgent dilemmas: Who belongs? Who survives? And what becomes of sovereignty when borders dissolve?

Markham’s unflinching analysis of migration, spanning epochs and continents, reveals a grim continuity: the fortified borders and criminalization of refugees today echo age-old patterns of exclusion. She incisively critiques the hypocrisy of wealthy nations whose policies fuel climate destruction while denying refuge to those displaced by it. With sharp insight and profound empathy, A Map of Future Ruins challenges readers to confront a central paradox of our age: the nations most responsible for global displacement are often the least willing to offer sanctuary.