Station Eleven: A Novel (National Book Award Finalist)

Emily St. John Mandel

Sept 2014 · Sold by Vintage

About this eBook

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST • Set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—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. • Now an original series on HBO Max. • Over one million copies sold!

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 bestselling new novel, Sea of Tranquility!

Ratings and reviews

I get why she introduced some of the characters, but at the same time I would have rather 150 wasted pages with in my opinion we could have done without, have been about the characters the book started to get into, and their full journey from beginning to end, and maybe a chapter or two of the peoples life who died days maybe weeks into the pandemic. I felt some dialogue was repeated a little too much. I feel cheated on the middle of the book to the point that I'm like did I really finish the book, or is there some hidden chapters I missed and so desperately wish I read.

There's not really a central conflict or narrative arc to tie the book together, but the characters are well developed, the context vividly described, and the language richly evocative. Not a story in the traditional sense, but a satisfyingly melancholy while also hopeful meditation on the end of civilization. Pays homage to some of the greats of the post apocalyptic sub-genre (such as The Stand and The Passage), but is something entirely different.

This entry in a well-populated genre hits all the standard plot points. It manages to be absorbing and genuinely moving despite the formulaic collapse-of-civilization set-pieces, thanks to the author's skill in managing character, structure and tone. For anyone who believes that there is redemptive value in art, a good read which will leave you thinking.

About the author

EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL's five previous novels include The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives in New York City.