Station Eleven
A Novel (National Book Award Finalist)
-
-
4.2 • 3.2K Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
This Anniversary Edition of Station Eleven, a finalist for the National Book Award and named a Best Book of the Twenty-First Century by the New York Times, celebrates ten years of this now iconic novel with a new color illustration and a guide to “The Mandelverse”
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century
An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days following civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
It is fifteen years after a flu pandemic wiped out most of the world's population. Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony, a small troupe moving over the gutted landscape, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. But when they arrive in the outpost of St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave. Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the disaster brought everyone here, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty, telling a story about the relationships that sustain us.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Art still has its place in the postapocalyptic world revealed in Emily St. John Mandel’s best-selling novel. Two decades after an airborne virus wiped out most of the world’s population, actress Kirsten traverses the Great Lakes region as part of a wandering band of performers bringing Shakespeare and classical music to disconnected communities of survivors. St. John Mandel bounces back and forth through time, showing Kirsten’s world before and after the pandemic and painting a deeply moving portrait of just how vital creativity is to human beings. Her writing is startlingly elegant, and the interwoven stories of the book’s characters—who yearn for long-gone comforts like TV sitcoms, airplanes, and the Internet—seem splendidly and heartbreakingly real. A thoughtful, non-sensationalistic treatment of life during and after a global catastrophe, Station Eleven reminds us that even in the worst-case scenario, the show must go on.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Few themes are as played-out as that of post-apocalypse, but St. John Mandel (The Lola Quartet) finds a unique point of departure from which to examine civilization's wreckage, beginning with a performance of King Lear cut short by the onstage death of its lead, Arthur Leander, from an apparent heart attack. On hand are an aspiring paramedic, Jeevan Chaudary, and a young actress, Kirsten Raymonde; Leander's is only the first death they will witness, as a pandemic, the so-called Georgia Flu, quickly wipes out all but a few pockets of civilization. Twenty years later, Kirsten, now a member of a musical theater troupe, travels through a wasteland inhabited by a dangerous prophet and his followers. Guided only by the graphic novel called Station Eleven given to her by Leander before his death, she sets off on an arduous journey toward the Museum of Civilization, which is housed in a disused airport terminal. Kirsten is not the only survivor with a curious link to the actor: the story explores Jeevan's past as an entertainment journalist and, in a series of flashbacks, his role in Leander's decline. Also joining the cast are Leander's first wife, Miranda, who is the artist behind Station Eleven, and his best friend, 70-year-old Clark Thompson, who tends to the terminal settlement Kirsten is seeking. With its wild fusion of celebrity gossip and grim future, this book shouldn't work nearly so well, but St. John Mandel's examination of the connections between individuals with disparate destinies makes a case for the worth of even a single life.
Customer Reviews
A Beautifully Woven Post Apocalyptic Mosaic
It’s honestly disturbing how a book published in 2014 can feel like a parallel universe of what happened to us in 2020. While reading Station Eleven, I kept thinking about lockdowns, empty streets, fear, and how closely its pandemic world echoes our own reality. It made me question whether this story is fiction, or a mirror of what almost happened to us.
Beyond that eerie familiarity, the writing is clean, vivid, and incredibly easy to follow. The characters feel fully alive as you move through multiple timelines and intersecting plots across a long arc of time. The story holds attention from start to finish, and the way everything connects is genuinely impressive.
I’m giving it a 4/5 only because this genre isn’t usually my favorite, but the execution is excellent. This is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year, and absolutely worth reading.
Exceptional
Not at all what I expected in the BEST way possible.
Great page turner
Interesting book, good character development makes this book an excellent read.