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Post Apocalyptic Book Club

Craving stories about raging pandemics, catastrophic natural disasters and societal collapse more than usual? Me too! Let's meet up (virtually) to discuss Ling Ma's unsettling 2018 novel, Severance.

This program is conducted through Zoom.

• One hour prior to the program, we will send you an email with the Zoom meeting ID. Please ensure that you have Zoom installed on your device or computer.
• If you don't have a library card, please visit https://www.reginalibrary.ca/register to register for one.

Maybe it's the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma's offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, Severance.

Candace, self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend. So, Candace barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies cease operations. The subways screech to a halt. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. Soon entirely alone, still un-fevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.

Candace won't be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob.... 

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma's Severance is a moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it's a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.

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