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Station Eleven

Station Eleven (2014)

352 pages 4.1/5 Goodreads

One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of "King Lear." Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur's chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them. Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten's arm is a line from Star Trek: "Because survival is insufficient." But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave.

Author: Emily St. John Mandel

ISBN: 9781410474179

Content Warnings

Identity & Discrimination

Religious persecution

Mental Health & Emotional

Death of a child Death of a parent Grief / bereavement (major focus) Suicide (discussed or ideation) Terminal illness

Other

Kidnapping / abduction Natural disasters

Substance Use

Drug use (depicted)

Violence & Physical Harm

Gun violence
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