Characters & connections
This character witnesses Arthur's death as a child and later joins the Traveling Symphony
What is Kirsten Raymonde?
Kirsten's tattoos of these objects represent each person she has killed.
Knives
This narrative structure allows Mandel to jump between different time periods rather than moving chronologically.
Nonlinear narrative
"Survival is insufficient" emphasizes that humans need this beyond just physical survival.
Art / culture / meaning
This is the city that I am from.
What is Salem? (accept Boston)
This character's art connects all the main characters despite her dying early in the pandemic.
What is Miranda Carroll
This object travels between Arthur, Miranda, and Clark, symbolizing fragility and preserved beauty.
Paperweight
This narrative perspective shifts between different characters' viewpoints throughout the novel.
Third person shifting
The Museum of Civilization demonstrates the importance of preserving this.
Memory / the past
This real historical pandemic that devastated 14th century Europe inspired Mandel's novel.
Bubonic Plague / Black Plague
Arthur's best friend who transforms an airport into a museum is this person.
Clark Thompson
This location symbolizes a liminal space where past and present coexist through Clark's curation.
Severn City Airport / Museum of Civilization
This technique describes how Station Eleven references Star Trek, Shakespeare, and other texts to create layers of meaning.
Intertextuality
Kirsten chooses art while Tyler chooses violence, illustrating the theme of this versus accepting fate.
Choice / power in choice
These are the only two egg-laying mammals in the world.
What are the platypus and echidna?
The Prophet is actually this character, Arthur's son.
Tyler Leander
This motif represents characters feeling trapped both before and after the collapse.
Stasis
This term describes Mandel's attitude toward her subject — melancholic, reverent, and mourning.
Tone
The novel explores both individual and communal forms of this, showing how it shapes identity and trauma.
Memory
This is one of the co-leaders of the NZ Green Party.
Who is either Chloe Swarbrick or Marama Davidson?
This character struggles to find meaning in his life and transitions from paparazzo to this profession before the collapse.
What is Jeevan Chaudhary?
The Station Eleven comics function as this literary device, where meaning shifts depending on who reads them and when.
Symbol / symbolism
By focusing on the years before and 15-20 years after rather than during the collapse, Mandel subverts expectations of this genre.
Dystopian / post-apocalyptic
Mandel portrays modern pre-collapse society as having this quality, similar to the post-collapse world's challenges.
Disconnected / hollow / empty / meaningless
This is the name of Mandel's just-realesed new novel.
What is Exit Party