An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. A National Book Award FinalistA PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist Kirsten Raymonde will never forget …
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.
Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.
Look for Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel, The Glass Hotel, available in March.
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A gem. Solid writing, and exciting execution of novel ideas.
A stark look at what human life might be like after nuclear war
My favorite kind of book. Captivating with nuance and texture.
One of my favorite “apocalypse” books. Entertaining and fast paced.
This is the first time we have read anything by this author. This is a science-fiction book based on post-apocalyptic life. This is a genre we wouldn’t normally read. That being said, this book had an interesting subject matter that captivated our attention.
The beginning of the book was captivating and drew us in. It begins with the fatal heart …
“Because survival is insufficient.” This is the worthy theme that runs through Emily St. John Mandel’s eclectic Station Eleven, a literary cross between Stephen King’s The Stand and J.J Abram’s Lost.
The quote comes from an episode of Star Trek Voyager. In Station Eleven, the words are painted on the lead caravan of the Traveling Symphony, a …
I finished this book on Thursday, and I’m still mulling through the outcome. What St. John Mandel said and didn’t are equally powerful. This book is one of the best I’ve read in some time.
Wonderful. Uplifting. Thoughtful. Perceptive. Clever. Kind. Worrying. Sad. Lovely!
DNF’d
I’m only half way through this book and I’m recommending it. I don’t usually go for post-apocalypse stories, but this tale, constructed in a non-linear fashion, is captivating.
Good read…….made me feel a part of it….
This book was amazingly crafted. I loved how the author wove so many different threads around the overarching theme.
Really enjoyed this book.
Really enjoyed reading this book!
Very thought provoking. Made me stop and appreciate the small things.
Post-apocalyptic fiction has become all too common since Stephen King’s magisterial The Stand set the bar extremely high at the end of the 1970s. But the wholly original and unusually cerebral Station Eleven is a very good read. This novel is as thought-provoking as it’s entertaining. There’s a great deal of tension in a fatalistic tale high on …
Beautifully written novel about a traveling Shakespearean troupe in a post-apocalyptic world
Beautiful. My favorite book.
I wasn’t as involved in the characters portrayed as much as I was of the portrayal of the collapse of civilization when a pandemic kills off 99% of the world’s population.
3 stars, which is an average of 4 for the writing and 2 for the story.
I love post-apocalyptic fiction. Station Eleven, while it does fall in this genre, is nothing like what a lover of post-apocalyptic might expect, and hardly in an enjoyable way.
Nothing really happened. I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters. Much of book …