Station Eleven

Description

DAY ONE The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%. WEEK TWO Civilization has crumbled. YEAR TWENTY A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there.

Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe. But now a new danger looms, and he threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild. STATION ELEVEN Moving backwards and forwards in time, from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists twenty years after, Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: famous actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan - warned about the flu just in time; Arthur's first wife Miranda; Arthur's oldest friend Clark; Kirsten, a young actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed 'prophet'.

Thrilling, unique and deeply moving, this is a beautiful novel that asks questions about art and fame and about the relationships that sustain us through anything - even the end of the world.

Reviews

Once in a very long while a book becomes a brand new old friend, a story you never knew you always wanted. Station Eleven is that rare find that feels familiar and extraordinary at the same time, expertly weaving together future and present and past, death and life and Shakespeare. This is truly something special. -- Erin Morgenstern, author of THE NIGHT CIRCUS 'Station Eleven is so compelling, so fearlessly imagined, that I wouldn't have put it down for anything. I think this one is really going to go places.' -- Ann Patchett, author of BEL CANTO and STATE OF WONDER Station Eleven is a firework of a novel. Elegantly constructed and packed with explosive beauty, it's full of life and humanity and the aftershock of memory. -- Lauren Beukes, author of THE SHINING GIRLS Station Eleven is a magnificent, compulsive novel that cleverly turns the notion of a "kinder, gentler time" on its head. And, oh, the pleasure of falling down the rabbit hole of Mandel's imagination - a dark, shimmering place rich in alarmingly real detail and peopled with such human, such very appealing characters. -- Liza Klaussmann, author of TIGERS IN RED WEATHER A genuinely unsettling dystopian novel that also allows for moments of great tenderness. Emily St. John Mandel conjures indelible visuals, and her writing is pure elegance. -- Patrick deWitt, author of THE SISTERS BROTHERS (shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize) A haunting tale of art and the apocalypse. Station Eleven is an unmissable experience. -- Samantha Shannon, author of THE BONE SEASON Station Eleven is the kind of book that speaks to dozens of the readers in me - the Hollywood devotee, the comic book fan, the cult junkie, the love lover, the disaster tourist. It is a brilliant novel, and Emily St John Mandel is astonishing. -- Emma Straub, author of THE VACATIONERS and LAURA LAMONT'S LIFE IN PICTURES Station Eleven is a mesmerising and beautiful book that puts a unique spin on a familiar end-of-the-world scenario ... Like The Road, Mandel's novel makes you desperately glad for the world we live in. -- Mark Edwards, author of THE MAGPIES Disturbing, inventive and exciting, Station Eleven left me wistful for a world where I still live. -- Jessie Burton, author of THE MINIATURIST An ambitious take on a post-apocalyptic world where some strive to preserve art, culture and kindness ... Think of Cormac McCarthy seesawing with Joan Didion ... Mandel spins a satisfying web of coincidence and kismet ... Magnetic ... A breakout novel. Kirkus (starred review) A theater troupe in a post-epidemic dystopia. Art and celebrity at the zenith of North American civilization and its nadir. Childhood and marriage and violence and comic books. Station Eleven is about all of these things, but none of them fully capture the magic of the book, which is one of the best I've read in a while ... It reminded me quite a bit of Kate Atkinson's fantastic Life After Life. And the plot, characters, writing-it's all fantastic, as well. honestly, I don't know what else to say except ... Buy, buy, buy. Seriously. Go pre-order it now. BookRiot An ambitious and addictive novel -- Sarah Hughes Guardian

Author description

Emily St. John Mandel was born in Canada and studied dance at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. She is the author of the novels Last Night in Montreal, The Singer's Gun, The Lola Quartet and Station Eleven and is a staff writer for The Millions. She is married and lives in New York.