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Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
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Station Eleven (edition 2015)

by Emily St. John Mandel (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
11,567775561 (4.09)1 / 1049
One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time-from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains-this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.… (more)
Member:pnorth
Title:Station Eleven
Authors:Emily St. John Mandel (Author)
Info:Vintage (2015), Edition: Reprint, 352 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:Science Fiction

Work Information

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

  1. 221
    Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (JenMDB)
  2. 151
    The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (JenMDB)
  3. 130
    The Passage by Justin Cronin (RidgewayGirl)
    RidgewayGirl: Both books are inventive dystopian novels of a future after a pandemic collapses civilization.
  4. 110
    Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Rubbah)
    Rubbah: Both amazing books featuring dangerous flu like viruses and how people cope in emergency situations
  5. 90
    The Stand by Stephen King (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: An ensemble cast of flu survivors journey across the U.S. and through the remains of civilization to fulfill their fated roles in these novels. The Stand is more graphic and action-packed, with a clear theme of good vs. evil.
  6. 92
    The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (jmg12)
  7. 125
    Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (generalkala)
    generalkala: Similar multi-strand, multi-era novel.
  8. 71
    Earth Abides by George R. Stewart (dhoyt)
  9. 60
    Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (benjclark)
  10. 52
    The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Anonymous user)
    Anonymous user: Dystopian North America with a strong female protagonist
  11. 20
    Morality Play by Barry Unsworth (pitjrw)
    pitjrw: Muses on memory and the role of art specifically drama set respectively in the alien past and the horrific near future.
  12. 20
    Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton (nicole_a_davis)
  13. 20
    Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh (Meggle)
  14. 20
    World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler (JenMDB)
  15. 21
    Player One: What Is to Become of Us (CBC Massey Lecture) by Douglas Coupland (Cecilturtle)
  16. 22
    Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins (BeckyJG)
  17. 22
    Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (johnxlibris)
  18. 00
    The Amateurs by Liz Harmer (LDVoorberg)
    LDVoorberg: Both are dystopia
  19. 00
    Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (sturlington)
    sturlington: These are both interesting contemporary works of speculative fiction that play with time and structure.
  20. 11
    The Road by Cormac McCarthy (ainsleytewce)

(see all 23 recommendations)

2021 (26)
Canada (14)
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Group TopicMessagesLast Message 
 Name that Book: Found: SciFi/Fan pandemic4 unread / 4AF1087, September 2021

» See also 1049 mentions

English (758)  Italian (4)  Dutch (3)  German (2)  French (2)  Chinese, traditional (1)  All languages (770)
Showing 1-5 of 758 (next | show all)
I am forever changed
( )
  griller02 | Mar 18, 2024 |
Loved, loved, loved this book!!! Such a fantastic world that this author has created and such a gorgeous story. A favorite. ( )
  rocketshackgirl | Mar 13, 2024 |
This is a marvelous book. I feel like I did last year after I read [b:The Son|16240761|The Son|Philipp Meyer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355349098s/16240761.jpg|19110442]: it's going to take some beating for this not to be the best book I read this year. I've read and really liked all three of Mandel's previous books, and now this one soars to an even higher level.

I stood looking over my damaged home and tried to forget the sweetness of life on Earth.

Current day is Year 20. Twenty years after a new swine flu variant swept over the Earth with a 99.9% fatality rate. Things have mostly settled down in what used to be the upper midwest, survivors living in small settlements among the decay and wreckage of human civilization. The Traveling Symphony, motto "Survival is Insufficient", moves through its territory like the old circuit riders, performing Shakespeare plays and classical music with its band of about thirty members.

We have been lost for so long. We long only for the world we were born into.

Kirsten Raymonde is the link between the Symphony, Year 20, and the life of Arthur Leander, star of screen and stage, who died on Day Zero, in front of this child actor. The novel moves back and forth between Arthur's life and, later, Kirsten's, with more links rising to the surface as the novel crescendos in a violent confrontation involving Kirsten and the Prophet, leader of a violent religious cult who alternates quoting from the Book of Revelation and a comic called Station Eleven.

Mandel has always combined interesting and thoughtful plots and structure with richly drawn characters who provoke great empathy from the reader. This she does again. It feels as if this world and these people are actually out there, still existing. Just a terrific, terrific novel.

Dr. Eleven: What was it like for you, at the end?
Captain Lonagan: It was exactly like waking up from a dream.

( )
  lelandleslie | Feb 24, 2024 |
Dystopia
  BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
This is a really well told speculative fiction account that starts in Toronto during a snow storm. An influenza virus brought to Toronto on a flight from Moscow (the Georgia flu) wipes out the majority of the people on earth within hours of exposure.
This is the story of those who survive and rebuild their lives during the decades after the big event.
The main character, middle aged Arthur Leander is acting as King Lear when he suffers a heart attack and dies on the stage. His life as a stage actor and then Hollywood movie star forms the background story for the remaining characters as every main character was a small or large part of his life.
Those who survive the pandemic are left without modern technology, no Internet, electricity, water, agriculture and security. They survive by banding together, ensuring the security and well being of others and finding small pleasures that make their lives worth living. The author does a remarkable job of tying up all the loose ands and character connections by the end. It has a hopeful ending. ( )
  MaggieFlo | Jan 30, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 758 (next | show all)
Station Eleven is not so much about apocalypse as about memory and loss, nostalgia and yearning; the effort of art to deepen our fleeting impressions of the world and bolster our solitude. Mandel evokes the weary feeling of life slipping away, for Arthur as an individual and then writ large upon the entire world.
added by zhejw | editThe Guardian, Justine Jordan (Sep 25, 2014)
 
Survival may indeed be insufficient, but does it follow that our love of art can save us? If “Station Eleven” reveals little insight into the effects of extreme terror and misery on humanity, it offers comfort and hope to those who believe, or want to believe, that doomsday can be survived, that in spite of everything people will remain good at heart, and that when they start building a new world they will want what was best about the old.
added by zhejw | editNew York Times, Sigrid Nunez (Sep 12, 2014)
 
Mandel’s solid writing and magnetic narrative make for a strong combination in what should be a breakout novel.
added by sturlington | editKirkus Reviews (Jun 17, 2014)
 

» Add other authors (10 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Emily St. John Mandelprimary authorall editionscalculated
Chergé, Gérard deTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ciccimarra, Milena ZemiraTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hawkins, JackNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kellner, StephanieNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kuhn, WibkeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Potter, KirstenNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Weintraub, AbbyCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
The bright side of the planet moves toward darkness
And the cities are falling asleep, each in its hour,
And for me, now as then, it is too much.
There is too much world.
—Czeslaw Milosz
The Separate Notebooks
Dedication
In Memory of Emilie Jacobson
First words
The king stood in a pool of blue light, unmoored. This was act 4 of King Lear, a winter night at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto.
Quotations
Jeevan's understanding of disaster preparedness was based entirely on action movies, but on the other hand, he'd seen a lot of action movies.
There had always been a massive delicate infrastructure of people, all of them working unnoticed around us, and when people stop going to work, the entire operation grinds to a halt.
I was here for the end of electricity.
He would jettison everything that could possibly be thrown overboard, this weight of money and possessions, and in this casting off he'd be a lighter man.
We traveled so far and your friendship meant everything. It was very difficult, but there were moments of beauty. Everything ends. I am not afraid.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (1)

One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time-from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains-this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.

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Book description
Haiku summary
Pandémie mondiale
Symphonie Itinérante
Shakespeare et SF
(Tiercelin)

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Emily St. John Mandel is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.

profile page | author page

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Average: (4.09)
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1 31
1.5 4
2 118
2.5 36
3 531
3.5 193
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