4,5 *

2.5 ⭐️ (Read the german translation) Shortly after famous actor Arthur Leander dies on stage during a production of King Lear, a great pandemic causes the collaps of the civilized world as we know it. Twenty years later, Kirsten - with a group of musicians and actors calling themselves The Traveling Symphony - travels through a shaken, non-civilized post-pandemic-world. They dedicate their lives to bringing art to the last remaining humans they encounter on their journey; therefore bringing light into a world of no electricity & plain darkness. This sounds like a fantastic plot driven novel about the restart of society in a distant apocalyptic future. You‘d expect to follow Kirsten and the symphony on their daily encounters with dangers of all kinds and the overall rebuilding of society and what it does to humanity. You’d expect it to jump back and forth between two timelines merely to explore and emphasize on the differences of the realities pre- and post-pandemic. This is not the case. Instead of following a catchy plot, this books aims to be a character driven book with many, many storylines. The structure, and what you expect from it (which for me was 70% the post-pandemic world of Kirsten and 30% of the pre-pandemic world of Arthur Leander) turned out to be something like this instead: 20% Kirsten, 25% Leander‘s ex-wife Miranda and creator of the comic book series that gives the book its name, 10% Leander‘s ex-wife Elizabeth, 20% Arthur Leander, 10% his friend Clark, and 15% Jeevan, ex-paparazzo and paramedic. That. Was. Too. Much! Too much to keep up with who knows what about whom and who doesn‘t, too much jumping back and forth between the timelines, making it unable to get attached to anything (or anyone) at all. In addition to that, unfortunately all of the characters remain flat throughout the book; there is no character development for anyone at all. Because of the amount of timelines and characters we follow whilst reading the book, it‘s plot - at least for a 300 pages book - barely exists and once you finish the book, you feel like you just finished a very (and too) long introduction to a book that sadly, isn’t the actual book. However! The writing style itself is good and there are beautiful ideas hidden in this story: the parallels between the Station Eleven Comic and the reality of the post-pandemic world is lovely. This also applies to the characters in the comic and the story itself. The book is also very thought-provoking when it comes to show how fragile the whole concept of civilization actually is,- we’re all taking something as simple as a lightswitch, a telephone or something more complex like modern medical care for granted every single day. Nevertheless, the execution of these themes and ideas is still deeply flawed and for me, it simply didn‘t work. It actually deeply frustrates me that I was unable to connect with this book because I feel like there could‘ve been some great potential there.

It's a story about what if pandemic would be faster and deadlier then it was, about people before and after it. Grabbing story, touching and terrifying. How delicate our world is... it's a good read, gives many thoughts.

There are very few books that I consider to be required reading. This masterpiece by Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel should be categorized as essential perusing. It is flawless and fantastic. It was a joy to read and I lamented reaching the end. There just aren't enough adjectives in my vast vocabulary to describe the sheer greatness of this novel. In the story, a group of theater kids decide to take it upon themselves to provide culture to a ruined landscape after a virus kills half of the world's population. On the surface, the novel is about art, fame and ambition, but underneath, it is also about the ephemeral nature of life and the short-lived existence we all share and experience, and, of course, because "survival (just) is not enough." That is all.