Book of the Month
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Available in print as well as ebook and audio on Overdrive
Day One: The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99 per cent. Week Two: Civilization has crumbled. Year 20: A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through the territories of a changed world performing concerts and Shakespeare at the settlements that have formed. Twenty years after the pandemic life feels relatively safe.
But now a new danger looms and it threatens the world every hopeful survivor has tried to rebuild. Moving backward and forward in time from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists 20 years after Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: celebrated actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan a bystander warned about the flu just in time; Arthur’s first wife Miranda; Arthur’s oldest friend Clark; Kirsten an actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed “prophet.” Sometimes terrifying sometimes tender Station Eleven tells a story about the fragility of life the relationships that sustain us and the beauty of the world as we know it.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mendel is one of the nominees for the 2015 Evergreen Award. Read as many as you like and vote for your favourite between Oct. 1 and Oct.24 at your nearest branch!
Library News
Evergreen voting has begun! If you have read any of this year’s 10 Evergreen titles drop into your nearest branch and vote for your favourite. Evergreen is the only literary award where the winner is chosen by Ontario library patrons. Vote today and have your say! Voting ends on October 24th.
– Submitted by the Haliburton County Public Library