In February 2026, Camille de Toledo returns with a powerful work of speculative fiction imagining a world in which rivers, lakes, and even the Earth become legal persons endowed with their own voices and rights.
In this vision of the future, natural entities - rivers, lakes, forests, waves, and the Earth itself - emerge as subjects of law capable of speaking for themselves. Through the story of a river named L, which brings a legal claim to have its working body recognized, the novel imagines a profound transformation of today's legal and economic systems.
The book extends and deepens the reflections developed through the project Towards an International of Rivers, which has already brought together a series of interdisciplinary and public hearings, discussions, and debates.
"It is the year 2030. Rivers, lakes, plant and animal species, and even biophysical phenomena such as waves have become persons, endowed with faces and voices through which they can express their needs, values, and more-than-human perspectives.
In this vision of the future, Camille de Toledo imagines how a river, assisted by its lawyers, brings a case before a court seeking recognition of its working body. This legal claim triggers controversy, unsettles the foundations of our society, and sets it on a path toward a system of labour rights for exploited natural entities."
Camille de Toledo, The International of Rivers: A Story of the Future, Verdier, La petite jaune series, 2026.
