Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Having lived through a recent global pandemic (is it over?), we might want to think about how things might have gone had the virus been more contagious and more virulent. Or maybe not. But we don't have to imagine it, because Emily St. John Mandel did the work for us with Station Eleven published in 2014. I became aware of this award-winning book because HBO put out an adaptation at the end of 2021. Our house is out of space for more books. If I buy a book, I need to find one to discard or give away. So, I've had a hold on the book with my public library for some months.

So....Is this a book about a pandemic? Not really, but the story begins with the start of one, shifts to fourteen years earlier, and then shifts to twenty years after. The pandemic is serious enough that year zero resets to the year it began. If you're exposed to the Georgia Flu, you get sick in a few hours and you're dead in a day or two. The only survivors are people who escape exposure. Civilization collapses. Twenty years later, there is a museum (Museum of Civilization) displaying such curiosities as electric lights, laptop computers, and mobile phones. The pandemic provides a setting and background, The central characters are famous actor Arthur Leander and child actress Kirsten. The action is mostly around the great lakes.

So....Is this a post-apocalyptic science fiction story? The book isn't science fiction; there's no technology in the book that doesn't exist today. The only major fictional device is an extrapolation of a flu pandemic that spreads rapidly around the world thanks to globalization. And there's not enough time for a miracle mRNA vaccine to be developed. So, it is definitely post-apocalypse. 

The story follows several people who have some associations with each other and with a famous actor (Arthur) who died of a heart attack on stage coincidently as the Georgia Flu was arriving in Toronto. One character (Kirsten) is a little girl in the production who saw him die. Another character is a paramedic in training who jumps on stage to try to save him. Other characters include Arthur's three wives and his child. Kirsten joins a nomadic group of performing artists. The action goes into Arthur's past and into the future of some people who knew him.

You might wonder where the title comes from. Station Eleven is an eponymous graphic novel in two volumes within the book created over many years by Arthur's first wife. Some of the scenes she drew were inspired by her own-life events. Arthur gives a copy of the graphic novel to Kirsten. Near the end of the novel, she gives it to the Museum of Civilization for their collection.

I recommend this book. The writing is excellent. And it gives cause to reflect on how things might have gone for us had Covid19 been more deadly.