Station Eleven

4 of 10
Station Eleven
352 pages; Knopf
The Novel Too Compelling (and Well Written) to Put Down

Set in a bleak, mysterious future in which most of the world has been killed off by a pandemic flu, two young people find comfort by acting in the productions of a theatrical caravan called the Traveling Symphony. As they walk from ad hoc town to ad hoc town, they survive by dodging doomsday cults and bandits, clinging to a comic book that is their last link to the civilized world as we know it and searching for a mythical museum located in an airport. An imaginative, dazzling read that explores how the arts can transform us even in the times of devastation and violence, with an eerily timely set-up that both terrifies and bewitches.
— Leigh Newman