Station Eleven: A novel

This is a wonderful and stunning book. Not only does the author succeed in bending genres (is it literary fiction, science fiction, dystopia, or a mighty metaphor for the dying of culture and arts in our world?), but her use of language is exquisite. Just as the world quakes in fear of the Ebola plague, Mandel writes of a Russian flu striking the world and leaving but a few survivors. The world is literally out of gas and electricity and has descended into the dark ages where roaming bands can be either scavengers, prophets of doom, terrorists or the travelling symphony featuring a Shakespearean troupe.

Airports are abandoned while intrepid travelers wait vainly for rescue. The author spins her story around a complicated set of characters bound together by the common acquaintance of Arthur Leander, a famous actor who dies on stage in the last act of King Lear just as the plague strikes. Leander has multiple ex-wives, most notably Miranda, the author of sequential art.

Miranda’s books bring characters together and provide a link with the old world of the past. This reader is so happy to have found this book and looks forward to reading more of her work. Station Eleven is a 2014 National Book Award finalist.