An audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame, and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse.

A dreamy atmospheric novel set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse. Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven is now an HBO Max original TV series.

What was lost in the collapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty.

One snowy night in Toronto famous actor Arthur Leander dies on stage whilst performing the role of a lifetime. That same evening a deadly virus touches down in North America. The world will never be the same again.

Twenty years later Kirsten, an actress in the Travelling Symphony, performs Shakespeare in the settlements that have grown up since the collapse. But then her newly hopeful world is threatened . . .

If civilization was lost, what would you preserve? And how far would you go to protect it?

The New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award
Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction
National Book Awards Finalist
PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist

'Disturbing, inventive and exciting, Station Eleven left me wistful for a world where I still live' – Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist

Station Eleven is part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

"Mandel’s beautiful depiction of the survival of human culture and art in a post-apocalyptic world, Perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale." - Cosmopolitan

"The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t the only one out there to examine life in a dystopia or collapsing society, or examine the challenges women face when confronting an authoritative power." - The Verge

"A dystopian novel that every woman should read after The Handmaid’s Tale." - Refinery29.com

"Glorious, unexpected, superbly written; just try putting it down." - The Times

"Visually stunning, dreamily atmospheric and impressively gripping . . . Station Eleven is not so much about apocalypse as about memory and loss, nostalgia and yearning; the effort of art to deepen our fleeting impressions of the world and bolster our solitude." - Guardian

"A beautiful and unsettling book" - Sunday Express

"There is no shortage of post-apocalyptic thrillers on the shelves these days, but Station Eleven is unusually haunting . . . There is an understated, piercing nostalgia . . . there is humour, amid the collapse . . . and there is Mandel's marvellous creation, the Travelling Symphony, travelling from one scattered gathering of humanity to another . . . There is also a satisfyingly circular mystery, as Mandel unveils neatly, satisfyingly, the links between her disparate characters . . . This book will stay with its readers much longer than more run-of-the-mill thrillers." - Observer

"An ambitious and addictive novel" - Guardian

"Possibly the most captivating and thought-provoking post-apocalyptic novel you will ever read . . ." - Independent on Sunday

"Tremendous . . . if you are looking for a novel you can just wallow in I'd pick Station Eleven up right now." - BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour

"Mandel is an exuberant storyteller . . . Readers will be won over by her nimble interweaving of her characters' lives and fates . . . Station Eleven offers comfort and hope to those who believe, or want to believe, that doomsday can be survived, that in spite of everything people will remain good at heart, and when they start building a new world they will want what was best about the old" - New York Times

"Emily St John Mandel is currently gathering lots of world-ending buzz with her new novel Station Eleven . . . conjures up an eerie post-killer-flu future" - Grazia

"Speculative fiction . . . of a decidedly literary bent" - Metro

"A novel that miraculously reads like equal parts page-turner and poem. One of her great feats is that the story feels spun rather than plotted, with seamless shifts in time and characters . . . This is not a story of crisis and survival. It's one of art and family and memory and community and the awful courage it takes to look upon the world with fresh and hopeful eyes." - Entertainment Weekly

"Ambitious, magnificent . . . Mandel's vision is not only achingly beautiful but startlingly plausible, exposing the fragile beauty of the world we inhabit. In the burgeoning postapocalyptic literary genre, Mandel's transcendent, haunting novel deserves a place alongside The Road" - Booklist

"This breathtaking highwire act argues theatre is primal - and instinct to tell and act out stories, to come together to experience art. Who wouldn't want to write novels about that?" - Big Issue

"An ambitious take on a post-apocalyptic world where some strive to preserve art, culture and kindness . . . Think of Cormac McCarthy seesawing with Joan Didion . . . Mandel spins a satisfying web of coincidence and kismet . . . Magnetic . . . A breakout novel." - Kirkus (starred review)

"Drew me in irresistibly" - New York Times

"The plot, characters, writing-it's all fantastic. . . honestly, I don't know what else to say except . . . Buy, buy, buy" - BookRiot

"Totally spellbinding . . . Deftly switching between the time before and after the pandemic, the story reveals the fates of six compelling characters, whose lives are interlinked. Full of eerie suspense and surprises, this is a haunting, original novel that makes you consider what's truly valuable in life." - Hello Magazine

"A beautifully written and compelling debut from Emily St John Mandel" - Good Housekeeping Magazine

"Mandel's strong storytelling ability sets Station Eleven apart . . . Mandel fluidly switches between characters and time periods . . . the result is a provocative tale of societal apocalypse that convincingly creates a disorientated reality, where humanity moves into an uncertain future on a planet littered with reminders of an imperfect past" - The List

"Excellently written, Station Eleven is closer to Joyce than Orwell as it stealthily connects plots and people" - Sunday Times

"Plays with time and place in a manner that brings to mind Kate Atkinson's superb Life After Life." - Stylist

"A deeply unsettling and well-crafted tale exploring human relationships in extreme circumstances" - The Lady

"Strong storytelling and believable characters combine in this very human tale" - Bella