Station Eleven

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel

This book should win some awards. It was extremely well written (I've read a few poorly written books and have proof read some awful documents at work lately, so it was wonderful reading something well written.) Taking place in the post-apocalyptic Great Lakes area, Kirsten and her fellow thespians and musicians travel from town to town to perform Shakespeare. The book jumps back and forth between the time before the Georgian Flu killed most of the world's population and the time many years after. The reader gets a sense of the characters, who they are and who they were. All are tied together by an actor, Arthur Leander, who didn't live to see the world decimated. Miranda, Arthur's first wife, wrote graphic novels set on Station Eleven. These play an important role as Kirsten and Arthur's son Tyler hold on to them as reminders of the past. Even though the world has changed and life is so very different than what it was, even in a world filled with violence and loss, this story is one of hope.