Station Eleven

Station Eleven2014 National Book Award Finalist A New York Times Bestseller An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a

2014 National Book Award Finalist

A New York Times Bestseller

An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

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.

Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 09/09/2014
ISBN: 9780385353304
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 8.52h x 6.10w x 1.25d
Award: Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction - Nominee
Award: New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Award - Winner
Award: ALA Notable Books - Winner
Award: Michigan Notable Books - Winner
Award: John W. Campbell Memorial Award - Finalist
Award: National Book Awards - Finalist
Award: PEN/Faulkner Award - Finalist
Award: Indies Choice Book Awards - Honor Book

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 04/15/2014 pg. 57
Quill & Quire 07/01/2014 pg. 32
Publishers Weekly 06/23/2014
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2014
Booklist 08/01/2014 pg. 35
Library Journal 09/01/2014 pg. 100
Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview 08/15/2014 pg. 14
Entertainment Weekly 09/05/2014 pg. 70
Shelf Awareness 09/12/2014
Entertainment Weekly 09/19/2014 pg. 134
People Weekly 09/22/2014 pg. 52
New York Times Book Review 09/14/2014 pg. 16
New York Times Book Review 09/21/2014 pg. 22
Entertainment Weekly 10/03/2014 pg. 74
Kirkus Best Fiction 11/15/2014 pg. 32
Shelf Awareness 12/12/2014
Entertainment Weekly 12/12/2014 pg. 71
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2015 pg. 11
BookPage 09/01/2014
People 06/29/2015 pg. 42

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 174332 / Station Eleven
Reading Level: 6.5 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 16