My Take - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

 Because survival is insufficient.

There is an outbreak of a deadly virus in a certain part of the world. However, the interconnectedness of the modern world acts as a catalyst in spreading the virus throughout the world in no time, which results in a pandemic that brings the entire civilisation to a grinding halt. The preceding lines could deftly summarise the plots of numerous post-apocalyptic fictions and movies, as well as the lived realities of our present lives in the face of the on-going corona virus pandemic.

            The premise of Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 novel Station Eleven presciently and somewhat eerily reflects the chaos that was to descend on Earth in 2020 in the form of corona virus pandemic. However, in Station Eleven ninety nine percent of the world’s population succumbed to the deadly virus, which in this case was a deadly mutant form of swine flu that had been termed as Georgia flu. The novel focuses on the survival of the remaining one percent of the population, albeit focussing exclusively on North America who miraculously survived the ravages of the pandemic and the societal collapse of its aftermath.

            The narrative moves back and forth in time, swinging back to the pre-collapse years as well as fast forwarding to twenty years after the collapse. The novel features a travelling company of musicians and Shakespearean actors called the Travelling Symphony, that visits the settlements scattered along the coast of North America and regales the inhabitants with musical performances as well as Shakespearean plays. There are many seemingly disparate characters in the novel with apparently no relation with one another. However, as the narrative progresses the multitudinous threads congeals to form a coherent fabric, with each piece of the puzzle falling into place. There is also a parallel story about the comic series featuring Dr Eleven whose plot premise echoes that of the main plot of Station Eleven, and from which, i.e. the comic series, the novel derives its title.

            The writing style is smooth, evocative and replete with vivid imageries. Though most post-apocalyptic novels compromises on character development for the sake of elaborate plots and settings, Station Eleven doesn’t fall into that trap. In fact, each of the characters including the minor ones are so well developed that a reader feels compelled to be involved in the fate of the characters. The novel portrayed a scary yet simultaneously mesmerising picture of the post-apocalyptic world. I am glad that I came across this book, it is unlike any other book that I have ever read and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

            I will end my review with one of my favourite lines from the novel:

“The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it? Perhaps soon humanity would simply flicker out, but Kirsten found this thought more peaceful than sad. So many species had appeared and later vanished from this earth; what was one more?”

My rating – 5 shimmering ⭐