Emily St. John Mandel crafted a really beautiful story of survival, not just about people but art's ability to persevere. Our connection to books, graphic novels, theatre, etc. can survive just as courageously and deeply as people can. With or without civilization, it has the power to bring people together. Her variety of characters and the mix of humane survivors and even the inhumane ones are shades of what the world used to be; all adversely affected by how they want to remember the way it used to be and sustain the new world they're in. Her balance of time, places, and people is quite extraordinary; she manages to shift focus between the past and present and not becoming confused. (My only critique is perhaps the narrative switching quickly from one of the main characters (Kristen) to some of the others towards the end and it felt wrapped up for too swiftly.) As much as this book takes place before and after epidemic, like The Walking Dead, the importance of the story is not so much on the apocalypse, brutality or violence, but the delicate connections of people, to who they were and who they will become when they face threats, human or otherwise. It left me thinking about the world differently, the delicate network not just of people but technology and so many things we come to rely on - each other, essentially life itself.