It’s no surprise that our “new reality” has been creeping into the pages of fiction books — whether it’s just a nod thrown in at the last moment of the production process or an entire book based around it (see Robin Cook’s soon-to-pub Viral, for instance). There’s a whole burgeoning genre of “pandemic fiction” spreading across the shelves like … well, a virus. As what will surely be one of the most defining events of an entire generation, it leads us to wonder: what comes after?
It’s hard to know where we’ll be once all this is behind us. And with the Delta variant of COVID-19 beginning to fill up hospitals around the country, some areas bringing back mandatory masking, and some government and industry sectors requiring vaccinations for employees, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to get further and further away.
But as bad as it gets, surely our post-pandemic world won’t be anything like those imagined in these novels written before COVID. We hope.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Vintage)
When civilization crumbles and all we have left is survival, what happens to art? In this novel, which was short-listed for the National Book Award, a Shakespearean troupe wanders the northern shores of Lake Michigan after a flu pandemic has ravaged the world. The Traveling Symphony, as they call themselves, has dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they cross paths with a violent prophet, their very existence is threatened.
Matthew Norcross of independent bookstore McLean & Eakin says: “This novel is a meditation on what is lost and what is gained in the absence of civilization. This is the type of book that stays with you; I still think about passages every time I feel my email inbox is going to devour me or when I see an airplane streaking across the sky. It will make you appreciate the marvels of our modern world and perhaps reevaluate what is truly important.”
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A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen (Mira Books)
Here is a rare find: a post-pandemic novel that’s actually uplifting. This one views destruction as the foundation for rebirth. A flu-like virus, known as MSG, sweeps across the world, killing 70 percent of the American population. In its wake are three San Francisco survivors: Rob, who is left alone to care for his young daughter Sunny after losing his wife Elena during the outbreak; Moira, who is hiding the truth about her past as the child star MoJo; and Krista, an event planner running away from her own childhood demons. Their lives unexpectedly converge and they find themselves suddenly reliant upon each other for help.
Though Rob, Moira and Krista share no relation — at first, they’re hardly even friends — the challenging circumstances of their lives bring them together in a way that shows the enduring power of hope and community amidst a crisis. When circumstances throw us together, we are simply forced to find ways to make it work. Read our full review here.
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Purged Souls by Kagan Tumer (Luminare Press)
Also set in San Fran, this post-pandemic novel takes the opposite direction: into conflict. Two decades after a viral pandemic called the Purge decimated the world population in frightening wave after wave, all that’s left is a wasteland of tribalism and war where survivors struggle to compete and adapt to a “new normal.” In a region now known as Marin, Special Forces colonel Lori teams up with her friend Mika to investigate the disappearance of a mortally wounded soldier from a hospital, trying to keep it under the official radar.
What Lori and Mika discover is a conspiracy and cover-up designed to obscure the true nature of the virus that nearly destroyed the human race. Equal parts political drama, military thriller and dystopian sci-fi novel, Purged Souls stars a no-nonsense heroine with grit and wit, rage and courage. It went on to become a 2020 Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award Finalist. Says the San Francisco Book Review, “Purged Souls is a hauntingly atmospheric debut novel.”
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The Mother Code by Carole Stivers (Berkley)
Not every pandemic can be controlled by a vaccine. How can the human race survive when time isn’t on our side? This novel explores what happens after scientists run out of time to find a cure for a global pandemic spurred by the accidental release of a deadly non-viral agent of biowarfare. They can’t save the dying, the sick or the soon-to-be infected, so they do the next best thing: try to save the human race from extinction.
The scientists place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots, who are to be raised by machines. These machines are encoded with a special artificial intelligence called The Mother Code. But as the children come of age, the Mothers change too — in unexpected ways that make the government uncomfortable. When the powers-that-remain decide to destroy the Mothers, these children are faced with a choice: breaking the bond with their Mothers or saving the only parent they have ever known. The Mother Code also raises some prescient issues we may have to deal with pretty soon, pandemic or no: What happens when the most essential part of being human — parenthood — is automated?
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Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin (Greenwillow Books)
What happens to those left behind? Here is a tale of survivor’s guilt and loneliness. Creepy, cool and dark, Griffin’s young adult sci-fi novel imagines a future ravaged by an epidemic that leaves its victims dead or physically maimed. In the aftermath, Nell Crane’s father creates biomechanical body parts that keep the survivors functioning. No one is whole anymore, with mechanical arms, legs, eyes, etc. But only Nell has a mechanical heart that ticks away audibly, alienating her from society. So when she finds a mannequin’s hand on the beach, Nell decides to build herself a companion from scratch. Doing so highlights the fears, secrets, and dark truths that have kept their society going. —Rachel Carter
Kirkus Reviews says of this debut novel: “Griffin explores the ethical quandaries of progress, love, class and ambition in language as ornate as the characters’ decorated prostheses. … Full of secrets, blackmail and betrayals … this poetic, Frankenstein-esque tale forms a page-turning whole.”
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