Severance
By: Ling Ma
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 291
ISBN-13: 9780374261597
Subjects: Epidemics; Fiction
Description: Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she&#x2019;s had her fill of uncertainty. She&#x2019;s content just to carry on: 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 unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost. Candace won&#x2019;t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They&#x2019;re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers? A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma&#x2019;s Severance is a moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it&#x2019;s a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.