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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Station Eleven made me nostalgic for a world I’m still living in.
This book is full of descriptions of people longing for things we take advantage of everyday, and don’t realize are miraculous. The magic of electricity, the awesomeness of flight, the convenience of running water. Things the world doesn’t have after a flu wipes out 99% of the …
I bought this ages ago so by the time I picked it up I’d forgotten what it was about. For some reason I thought it was hard scifi. (Spoilers: not hard scifi).
This is a quiet take on the post-apocalypse, and it made me slightly depressed, but in a good way. (Weird?) Mandel flips between before a plague that wipes out 99% of humanity, and 20 years …
I just reread this book for the third time for a bookclub and was reminded of why I love it so deeply. Writing a literary apocalypse isn’t easy, by Mandel does it with beauty and astounding elegance.
“Because survival is insufficient.”
These words have continued to reverberate in my head despite long and busy weeks between now and the moment I turned the final page. Even yesterday during my commute home, this book crept back into my thoughts.
Station Eleven takes place in a post-apocalyptic world… but it’s not really about the …
The first day I started reading this book I stayed up hours past midnight because I could not get enough of Mandel’s post-apocalyptic world. I loved the feasibility of the apocalypse, the depth of the characters, and how the story is not chronological. It made me appreciate what I often take for granted.
Weeks later the books has stayed with me …
If you enjoy dystopian fiction, Station Eleven is a must read. The story follows several characters whose lives intertwine in surprising and affecting ways after a flu pandemic knocks the U.S. back into a time that more nearly resembles the Middle Ages than the Space Age. No air travel, no internet, no cell phones, no electricity . . . the list …
I began this book and was pulled so vigorously into the story, I was unable to put it down until the last page was reached. I would think about the premise as I closed my eyes to sleep. This story is a tapestry of threads that flap loosely as the plot unfolds, but wind tighter together as the pages fly past until at last a satisfying whole cloth …
This is perhaps my favorite post-apocalyptic novel. Mandell writes with such simplicity and assurance of a world after the plague that wipes out most of humanity. The survivors attempt to maintain purpose and dignity through art. Beautifully written.
Quite simply, this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Its structure is extremely non-linear, with multiple point-of-view characters, the narrative flitting between the present and various points and viewpoints in the past. In some hands that would be confusing or frustrating, but Mandel not only makes it work, but the beauty of …
A brilliant and oddly uplifting pandemic book about a group of traveling players in a post-apocalyptic world. I ate it up in practically one sitting.
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.
One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor …
Not just another post-apocalyptic world. Back and forth through a timeline of Before and After the pandemic that decimated the population, this is not simply a story of survival, but of love and triumph. The atmosphere is not bleak, as with so many After tales, but a world in which everyone still remembers, and strives to bring back the good we …
What book takes me out of my comfort zone? This one. While I love a good apocalyptic read, this one seemed a little more plausible than other similar books. A fast-spreading virus that wipes out most of humanity? Definitely not comfortable. That said, I loved this book! I became invested in these characters, I cried for lost futures and lost …
Many characters, lots of twists and turns, mix of present day action and past recollections. It was fascinating to see how the author brought all the stories together. I thought it was more realistic than other dystopian or apocalyptic novels. It was not based on a nuclear war or zombies, but just a flu-like illness that kills most of the …
Station Eleven isn’t your typical end of the world novel. Yes, the poop hits the fan in the early chapters and that is handled in a creepy enough way to satisfy fans of that type of apocalypse novel. This book goes beyond that, though. It tells the story of a group of traveling Shakespearean actors decades after the end of the world, interweaving …
I’m not even sure how to rate this book.
It’s described on the back as a “tapestry,” and that’s very much how it feels: I am impressed with the way the author moves through time and between character’s viewpoints seamlessly, and you just have to go with it and figure out where you are now as you go. Some chapters are ten or twenty pages and some …
One of the best books that I have read this year. Although a work of science fiction, this could so easily become the plight of humans in the near future. One flu, so virulent and fast moving – a pandemic that wipes the majority of the human race. No longer are the simple luxuries available -no electricity, no running water, no phones, computers, …
It was picked for book club and I wasn’t sure I would like it but I did!
An ambitious, engaging novel about a world after a pandemic wipes out most of the population. At the moment (July 2020) it feels a bit On The Nose.
I have to admit, I heard a lot of hype about this book, and perhaps my expectations were unfairly high. I was surprised to find at times I was a bit underwhelmed by the writing which felt somewhat …
One of my favorites in recent years. The way Emily St John Mandel twines together these disparate characters and timelines into a single striking, powerful tale is original and impressive. Beautifully written and not to be missed.