Survival is insufficient

STATION ELEVEN

This was a truly marvelous reading experience. Emily St. John Mandel has a gift for atmospheric writing and eventhough this book is branded to be a dystopian science fiction novel it reads more like litterary fiction.

The strength of this novel lies in it's subtlety. Every word is chosen with care and holds information that will ultimately paint the full picture of this non linear narrative. The tale is comprised of seemingly unrelated stories that blend in seamlessly in the end.

In short the plot centers around a traveling Symphony visiting whats left of North America after a large part of the world population is wiped by the Georgia Flu. The storyline spans decades and we get a glimpse of the world before and after this unexplicable flu pandemic.

The beauty of this particular story of a post apocolytic earth is that the lack of zombies, martians or other unnatural creatures makes this version of the future world possible and therefore eerily realistic. Where dystopians tend to focus on survival, Emily St. John Mandel has written a dystopian about living. I guess because "survival is insufficient" ....