Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

Station Eleven is a thought-provoking book about the end of the world—and the beginning of a new world.

It follows the mostly separate stories of a handful of characters who are all loosely connected through their relationships, in the old world, with a famous actor, Arthur Leander. Arthur's death on stage at the beginning of the story feels pivotal, as though it's the thing that sets the apocalypse in motion, but it is only coincident with the beginning of the end.

A virulent flu, unprecedented in its deadliness, kills off most of the world's population.

The characters' stories are woven together skillfully, with jumps between the past and present that are never jarring. Remarkably, the post-apocalyptic world described in the book, where electric lights and air conditioning are unthinkable, feels as real as the more familiar world of the characters' past.

The author has created a completely credible dystopian future. Most books, even most good books, aren't particularly memorable, but I believe I'll be thinking about this one for some time.