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Station Eleven
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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Audible Editor Reviews
Publisher's Summary
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.
What the critics say
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What listeners say about Station Eleven
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amanda S.
- 2018-09-19
Fan. Friggin. Tastic
Loved this book! It is set in a post-apocalyptic world that still enjoys the arts and I am a fan of that! The whole story was amazing, I would definitely give it a read! #Audible1
3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2020-05-14
Perfectly Prescient
Maybe starting this audiobook during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 wasn't the smartest decision but if I was worried a book about a flu pandemic sweeping my country (Canada) would make me anxious, I was wrong. The beautiful written book actually eased a lot of my anxieties about the end of the world but showing me that no matter what, people find a way to make community. The book was clever, well-written, and complex both emotionally and technically. I loved it!
2 people found this helpful
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- Maggie Reid
- 2020-05-13
Kind of Lame
I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t. It only really surface touched the topics. Not enough real story.
1 person found this helpful
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- Nicholas Martin
- 2019-07-04
Zombies would have made this story MORE realistic.
Zombies would have made this story more realistic. The writing and prose was of a high quality but the story was eye-rollingly cliche with nothing new or fresh to offer the genre. Every single character was beyond insufferable, I didn't care what happened to any of them. i rooted for death for the protagonists because they deserved it and in the end I didn't make it half way through this colossal disappointment.
The performance was also just mind grating terrible. The whole project was insufferable.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2021-02-16
Excellent read
One of the best books I have read in this genre. I really didn’t want it to end and dragged ou my listening to make it last! Certainly an appropriate story for the times we are in. Highly recommended.
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- Chris
- 2021-01-17
just ok
difficult to follow because back & forth in time. Narration not to my taste. Long
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- Elle
- 2020-12-27
A Dystopian Future - A very creative story!
This book felt unique to me, and very real. I loved the dystopian theme, and the characters. At times the loose ties between all characters felt confusing, and there are definitely plot lines and background information that is not brought to a close. However, overall, it is certainly worth a read. The ending is lovely.
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- Agreeable_me
- 2020-12-14
Almost no real plot, no point
Disappointed this was so highly recommended on Reddit as a top post-apocalyptic story. It mainly centres on characters (as opposed to events driving a plot), but is too short for you to bond with the characters. There was no rising story arc, no final resolution. Just a lazy ending to a narrative that focuses on detailed apocalyptic imagery in an almost self-congratulatory way. As if it was the first of its genre to feature a million prototypical things like cults or dead bodies in abandoned buildings or nature reclaiming urban cities. For anyone who loves this genre, this book is like an unsalted cracker. Just totally dry and pointless and should be covered with jam (sorry am just hungry).
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- Nick
- 2020-10-21
No Ending!
I was thought the story was still in the rising action then it abruptly ended.
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- Jocelyn
- 2020-09-19
A fully imagined world and not your average apocalypse tale
The opening scene grabbed me but i felt impatient at first at where it was going. I normally find stories with so many disconnected perspectives frustrating but this story woven together into a very fully realized, interesting story within probably one of the most human post apocalyptic worlds I can recall. My fingers are already crossed for a sequel.
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- Ruth
- 2016-12-19
No ending
I don't understand...I was enjoying this book, and just starting to care for the characters enough to wonder how it would all come together or why we had been following these particular people when the book suddenly ended!
20 people found this helpful
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- james
- 2018-03-21
Symphonies, Caravans, Comics, and a Plague
Station Eleven is not the typical post-apocalyptic tale. Based on the quality of writing , it is considered "literary." While I didn't find the narrative overly compelling, Emily St. John Mandel does have a knack for descriptive scenes and character development. The author's tale of post-apocalyptic society revolves around a traveling symphony, a migratory convoy performing Shakespeare plays in the remaining small villages of America. The narrator of this audiobook, Kirsten Potter, does a excellent job and keeps the reader/listener engaged through what I consider to be a slow-moving first couple of hours. While most novels of the post-apocalyptic genre focus on the evils the deterioration of modern society must surely bring, Station Eleven focuses more on the hope that not all is lost. While the horrors of civilization's demise certainly occur within in the novel, these horrors are more of a backdrop rather than the focal point of the narrative. Station Eleven is an artistic version of an apocalyptic setting, an above average read for those looking for a change of pace. Overall rating: 4.11 stars
58 people found this helpful
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- CScott
- 2016-12-20
An Alternative Dystopian Viewpoint
A masterfully executed dystopian novel from a feminine perspective. Although I am a fan of this genre of literature, I have yet to read (or listen via Audible) to one so rich in the description of human relationships in a post apocalyptic world. Maybe Margaret Atwood comes close. No zombies or AI units wanting to dominate the planet here, just folks trying to figure out what it means to be human in a brand new world. The primary adage of Mandel's work "survival is insufficient" says it all.
37 people found this helpful
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- Jan
- 2015-06-08
Literary take on EOWAWKI...
I had great hopes as I started to read that this was going to be another well written post apocalyptic novel like "The Postman", "Silo Series, "On The Beach, "The Road", "Swan Song" or "The Stand" and knew not to expect a prepper view like "Jakarta Pandemic." I didn't find a new gem and would read all of the above again before this...
I can see what Emily St. John Mandel was trying to do and it had a lot of potential. Perhaps she tried too hard. I like woven stories with voices and time changing... but this was so tightly woven in places and loosely woven in others that I struggled figuring out who I was with in what time period and why. I might have done better with multiple narrators or reading it in hard print. I also didn't like most of the characters and almost turned it off because I didn't really care. I enjoyed the time spent with the traveling actors... but felt the results of the apocalypse were inaccurately portrayed and just didn't feel real to me.
Unlike other reviewers, I did enjoy the end and felt that as her loose strands were all pulled together and then left open she said something... worth reading... once maybe.
31 people found this helpful
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- Kaui
- 2017-11-23
a solid weekend read
This is another entry into one of my pet genres, which I affectionately call "books about books." This one is nominally sci-fi as it is set in a post-apocalyptic world where high-tech civilization has collapsed and in the ensuing, increasingly wild mid-west, a troupe of actors and musicians travel from town to town, performing Shakespeare and symphonies. King Lear figures prominently in the story. A child actor from the opening King Lear performance serves as the main protagonist; the child from the actor playing King Lear in the opening performance serves as the main antagonist. There are several interesting connections between the pre- and post-apocalyptic worlds that serve to entertain. This won an award when it was published and was very well-received. I found it on the light side, though fairly well-written. It is not terribly challenging in style, vocabulary or plot but does gently pull you into the story arc in a surprisingly effective way. Shakespeare resonates through this book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
6 people found this helpful
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- Stacy
- 2014-10-08
gah!
I was really into this story-beautifully written, interesting characters- then it just ended.
What the beep?
So I'm left to ponder what happened to all these people, and what was the real point of the book. I get it, I guess, but I seriously had no idea that the book was about to end when the "audible hopes you've enjoyed this program" came on. I wanted more! wahh!
118 people found this helpful
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- Mel
- 2014-09-24
Melancholy, Reflection, and Venison
I can't say what kind of apocalyptic society member I would be. A religious, rapture-ish event... I'd have to brush up on my survival skills, but a nuclear event or count down to Armageddon, and I would place my chair at Ground Zero, because I wouldn't want to be without the people I love, nor would I choose to live in a world where there was not some form of beauty, or sense of community. Alone, fighting just to survive, I would wind up as mad as King Lear. Station Eleven opens with a scene from the Shakespeare play and expands on the themes of survival and meaning.
Opening night, the lead actor suffers a heart attack and passes away. The news that night pronounces the actor's passing, and barely mentions a mysterious illness that has people flooding hospital ERs. Within 3 weeks, 99% of the world will die from a flu pandemic. Forward: Twenty years later, a troupe of actors and musicians called The Travelling Symphony moves from one outcropping of survivors to another performing plays and music. Their mission statement sounds enlightened and magnanimous, an ode to the arts... “Because survival is insufficient,” it is a quote one member recalls from a Star Trek episode he watched as a child. The troupe includes a woman that was a young child in the King Lear production the night the actor had his heart attack on stage.
At times, author St. John Mandel is eloquent with understated visions of a broken world. Her museum of artifacts is a centerpiece that connects people and stories, including the actor Leander. His personal life, his celebrity, is captured there in articles from the celebrity magazines left intact. She doesn't go into the breakdown of society or the aftermath of the pandemic, but focuses on the emptiness and melancholy borne of lost loved ones, simple pleasures only remembered, and the connections that remain stretched across a barren world, traversed by The Travelling Symphony. Here, the author is a mighty gentle giant.
Beyond the difficulties of surviving day to day, there is a menacing group of brutal men ruled by The Prophet, but sadly,he makes only a brief appearance and whimpers away. Just when I was hoping for a little trouble-maker to take my mind off the moping and memories, and roasting venison over burning tires, again. Once you get the general premise, you better be ready to dwell on it. Mandel writes beautifully and has created a world that is eerie and surreal, but I started to feel swallowed by the melancholy. For all the hype, all the great reviews, all the promises that I would be haunted by this powerful story, I wasn't feeling it. From my frame of reference, it's been done before. Mandel thinks outside the apocalyptic genre box, but doesn't enlarge the real estate.
The book stays high centered in that world of reflection, the menagerie of meandering melancholics mourning the past, hoping for a better future, chewing deer meat, occasionally appreciating the arts, coming up with some profound thoughts--wallowing in sentimentality. I recommend the book, in spite of my sarcastic, irreverent nature; but not to hard-core apocalyptic/dystopia fans, or anyone that believes the saying "you can't move forward with one foot in the past." (I think Mr.Spock said that in an episode.) It is a lovely novel, written beautifully-- my head tells me so.
89 people found this helpful
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- green ice cream garden
- 2014-09-22
Don't lose the forest for the trees.
If I nitpick about the few things that I found irritating, I won't do this book justice. It left me with many moments of introspection. It is an overall great read that leaves you wondering what we leave behind and what matters most.
22 people found this helpful
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- Roger
- 2015-01-28
Airport Paperback
Maybe this is not a completely terrible book. I was really up for something that had both a symphony orchestra and Star Trek references-- and who doesn't like a good post-apocalypse? But my God, what's with the critical raves and nominations for fancy book prizes? Are these people nuts? There is glaring hokiness on every single page: the pedestrian, almost clunky writing; the empty characters; the bad-movie dialogue; the predictable villain; the barrage of cliches. The lameness just washes over you.
The whole thing is not helped much by the reader, whose delivery only amplifies the built-in corniness, and who surely cannot do a British accent. Also, the audio quality doesn't seem great (though maybe I'm just ranting now).
It's possible for a book to have all these flaws, and still be decent entertainment. I finished it, after all. Just manage your expectations. Think of it as a serviceable beach book. If you are looking for something "luminous" or "spellbinding" or whatever hype they are dishing, you're going to be sorely disappointed.
89 people found this helpful
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- Sam Green
- 2019-10-10
A first rate, original and poetic work
Even if you're familiar with end-of-the-world stories like 'Earth Abides' and 'The Stand' this work is like no other. It's tempting to call it Canadian as Canada and American-Canadian issues are a part of the work but that would be inexact. It's a powerful work about time, Shakespeare, music, and love. The crisp delivery of the voice actor makes this particular production a gem.
3 people found this helpful
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- Gringo
- 2020-06-24
Wonderful
I really enjoyed this book! The caracters are very touching, the stories finely linked and the tempo and ambiance make for very nice reading/listening experience. While a story about life after a horrible pandemic might not be the smartest choice for amusement in mid-2020 (hehe), I truly loved the descriptions of the world after the collapse, the details, the ideas, and the detailled descriptions. The book left me uplifted and happy despite of its apparent desolate subject. The reading is very good, quiet but never boring, not too accent heavy but diverse.
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- lévana
- 2020-06-09
Beautiful
I'd heard about it, and was not disappointed. it was awesome, and I wish there were more pages.
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- Cheerioh
- 2018-10-30
Surprenant mais on reste sur sa faim
Ce récit post apocalyptique sort de l'ordinaire. La grippe a faire des ravages sans précédent. La civilisation en a été furieusement modifiée. Le récit nous fait suivre divers personnages avant et après le moment de bascule et on suit une troupe de musiciens et facteurs Shakespeariens.
C'est surprenant parce qu'on ne s'y attend pas. C'est touchant aussi. Les personnages sont très authentiques, pas de gros bras, pas de sauveur. Très réaliste.
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- François
- 2018-01-20
Great story
Loved the book . The reader is perfect. Very imaginative story, easy to follow. I recommend it
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- Rinat
- 2018-01-17
So beautiful, tellement doux.
I feel better about the world around me after listening to this book.
Thanks. Merci.