I ignored my general aversion to dystopian novels, and read Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven.   It was completely compelling, and I’m a huge fan.  Now I am hoping there will be a movie version and a sequel.  This unique novel goes back and forth between the pre-pandemic lives of individual characters who shared some connections and the post-pandemic period featuring a ragged group of survivors.  The sense of what is missed when society is just gone pervades this beautiful book.  The survivors keep on going, but the fabric of relationships is tattered and keeps dissolving.  This is a troubling tale of how people think and act after everything on which they based their lives vanishes overnight.    It is very much a story of individuals — this is not a book about an heroic family that somehow muddles through with brave and noble parents and plucky children.  Here the focus is on a captivating collection of individuals and what they are thinking, and that is what makes this such a stellar read.