Severance: A Novel
<p><b>Maybe it’s the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma’s offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, <i>Severance</i>.<br /></b><br />"A stunning, audacious book with a fresh take on both office politics and what the apocalypse might bring." <b>—</b><b>Michael Schaub, <i>NPR.org</i></b><br /><br />“A satirical spin on the end times-- kind of like <i>The Office</i> meets <i>The Leftovers.” </i>--<i><b>Estelle Tang,</b> <b>Elle</b></i><br /><br /><b>NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: </b><b>NPR * <i>The New Yorker </i>("Books We Loved") * </b><b><i>Elle * </i></b><b><i>M</i></b><b><i>arie Claire * </i></b><b>Amazon Editors * </b><b><i>The Paris Review</i> (Staff Favorites) * </b><b><i>Refinery29 *</i> </b><b><i>Bustle *</i> </b><b><i>Buzzfeed *</i> </b><b><i>BookPage *</i> </b><b><i>Bookish </i>* </b><b><i>Mental Floss * </i></b><b><i>Chicago Review of Books * </i></b><b><i>HuffPost * </i></b><b><i>Electric Literature * </i></b> <b><i>A.V. Club * </i></b><b><i>Jezebel * </i></b><b><i>Vulture * Literary Hub * Flavorwire</i></b><br /><br /><b>Winner of the </b><b>NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award * </b><b>Winner of the Kirkus Prize for Fiction * </b><b>Winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award * </b><b>Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel * </b><b>A <i>New York Times </i>Notable Book of 2018 * </b><b>An Indie Next Selection</b><br /><br />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’s had her fill of uncertainty. She’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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. They’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?<br /><br />A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s <i>Severance </i>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.</p>