Station Eleven

This book was selected as the 2015 - 2016 Great Michigan Read by the Michigan Humanities Council.  It is about a small troupe of entertainers who travel up and down the west coast of Michigan performing Shakespearean plays.  This is a post-apocalyptic story which is primarily set in the near future when 99% of the world’s population is wiped-out by a lethal influenza pandemic.

Mandel has referred to this book as a love letter to the modern world.  By writing the book in such a way that the story shifts back and forth, before and after the calamity, she gets readers to consider several questions.  What would life be like without the miracle of all of our technological conveniences? What do we cherish the most about modern life? How do we define quality of life and what role does culture play in our society? 

 
I was a little reluctant to read this book at first, but I ended up really enjoying it.   Station Eleven is definitely food for thought on many levels.