Severance

Severance by Ling Ma, 291 pages.

I love post-apocalyptic novels that are less about the grim struggle and more about the nostalgia, and are quietly reflective on the smaller things that were lost, more about the continuity of small sadness after the world has come crashing down. Station Eleven and Colson Whitehead's magnificent Zone One stand out in this sub-genre. And now Severance is there too. This is a character-driven piece of Post-A fiction and Candace is a quiet, likable, and compelling central character.
Candace is rooted in her small apartment in New York, still stuck in the loss of her parents and in the sense that she disappointed them. As Shen fever takes hold, and the world starts falling apart, Candace is left with her job, her photo-blog, and her failing relationship with Jonathan. The book cuts back and forth through time, settling at times in scenes of memory; Candace's parents and their journey to America, and their ongoing battle about staying or returning to Fuzhou, or the recent past with Jonathan, and her work on the Gemstone Bible, or settling into the present with Candace's role as a reluctant member of a survivalist group / low-rent cult, following the not-so-charismatic Bob on his quest to relocate to the mythical and sad "facility" somewhere outside of Chicago. A quietly great book.