Between the Pages

I wasn’t entirely sure that I had picked the best time to read this book – after all it is about a global pandemic which brings about the collapse of civilisation and changes life as we know it for ever. And I read it during the current Covid-19 pandemic, just as the world was made aware of a new variant of the Coronavirus that is certain to become the dominant strain.

Nonetheless, I decided to give Station Eleven a go, having heard so many good things about it. The play opens in the present day, in a theatre in Toronto. Famous film star Arthur Leander is on stage playing King Lear, when he collapses and dies in front of the audience. On the same night, a deadly flu virus which comes to be known as the Georgia Flu, due to where it originated, starts sweeping the world, wiping out thousands of people every day.

Twenty years later, civilisation has collapsed. There is no electricity, there are no computers or mobile phones, cars and aeroplanes have become obsolete, and the world is no longer a safe place to live.

Kirsten, a child actor in Arthur’s King Lear play, who saw him die on stage, is now part of a travelling symphony – a group of musicians and actors who travel around the country performing Shakespeare plays and musical concerts. They face the possibility of danger and hostility at every turn but they are determined to survive.

The book alternates between the lives of Kirsten and the symphony, and Arthur’s life and rise to fame as well as his complicated love life. There are also several chapters centering on Arthur’s old friend Clark, who is determined to preserve the memories of the old world.

I’ll be honest, that when I started this book I was not at all sure I was going to enjoy it, and not just because of the reasons I mentioned at the start of this review. I initially found it difficult to invest in the descriptions of life 20 years after the pandemic; however, this story took hold of me and I ended up getting really drawn in, and I would say that this is definitely one of my favourite reads of 2021.

There are a large cast of characters, who we read about and then come back to later on in the story, and they were all so realistically drawn that I really cared about what happened to them. My favourite two characters were probably Jeevan (a somewhat peripheral character, maybe almost unnecessary character, but his part definitely added something for me) and Clark, who initially seemed like he would just be a background player, but ended up becoming central to the story.

Science fiction fans should be aware that this book does not fall into that genre. It’s definitely a dystopian novel, but it’s much more than that. It’s a book about appreciating what we have, remembering the beautiful things in life, and trying to remain humane to others during catastrophic times. It’s desperately sad in parts, but curiously uplifting at times.

I loved it, and highly recommend it.