Emily St. John Mandel - Station Eleven

NOTES

The book referenced in passing in Chapter 43 (vampires, North America placed under quarantine, etc.) is The Passage , by Justin Cronin.

The line painted on the lead caravan and tattooed on Kirsten’s arm, “Survival is insufficient,” is from Star Trek: Voyager , episode 122, which aired for the first time in September 1999 and was written by Ronald D. Moore.

I owe a debt of inspiration to Simon Parry, whose September 28, 2009, Daily Mail article “Revealed: The Ghost Fleet of the Recession Anchored Just East of Singapore” inspired the chapters of the book set in Malaysia.

The Toronto staging of King Lear described in this book is partially based on James Lapine’s exquisite 2007 production of the play at the Public Theater in New York City, in that Lapine’s production featured the unusual addition of three little girls who performed nonspeaking parts as child versions of Lear’s daughters.

WITH THANKS

To my wonderful agent, Katherine Fausset, and her colleagues at Curtis Brown;

To Anna Webber and her colleagues at United Agents;

To my editors, whose tireless work made this a far better book than it would otherwise have been. In alphabetical order: Jenny Jackson at Knopf, Sophie Jonathan at Picador UK, and Jennifer Lambert at HarperCollins Canada;

To everyone who acquired and/or worked on this book at Knopf, Picador, HarperCollins, and abroad;

To Sohail Tavazoie, for so graciously accommodating my book tour schedule;

To Greg Michalson, Fred Ramey, and their colleagues at Unbridled, for their support and generosity;

To Michele Filgate and Peter Geye, for reading and commenting on early versions of the manuscript;

To Pamela Murray, Sarah MacLachlan, Nancy Miller, Christine Kopprasch, Kathy Pories, Maggie Riggs, Laura Perciaseppe, and Andrea Schulz, for their enthusiasm for the work and for their extremely helpful editorial comments;

To Richard Fausset, for anthropological assistance;

To Jon Rosten, for intel on the Mackinac Bridge;

To Kevin Mandel, always, for everything.

Emily St. John Mandel was born in British Columbia, Canada. She is the author of three previous novels— Last Night in Montreal, The Singer’s Gun , and The Lola Quartet —all of which were Indie Next picks. She is a staff writer for The Millions , and her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including The Best American Mystery Stories 2013 and Venice Noir . She lives in New York City with her husband.