Station Eleven

On the sofa at Frank’s apartment about a week after the outbreak, Jeevan thinks back to the interview with Arthur and wonders whether he will ever drink a cappuccino or see his girlfriend again.

Frank asks what Jeevan is smiling about. “Arthur Leander,” he replies, proudly remembering that he kept his promise after the interview. He feels a twinge of regret when he recalls photographing Miranda after the dinner party.

Shortly after the outbreak, Frank and Jeevan seal their apartment to keep intruders out. They watch TV as, one by one, stations go off air. To pass time, Frank carries on ghostwriting the memoir of a philanthropist, though he knows that everyone involved is likely dead. Eventually, the electricity goes out, followed by running water. Jeevan reads a lot and is surprised at how peaceful he feels.

Diallo’s interview with Kirsten continues. He asks Kirsten where she was at the time of the collapse, and she talks about Arthur’s death during King Lear. 

Forty-seven days after the collapse, Jeevan sees smoke in the distance. At night, he hears gunshots. With two weeks of supplies left, Jeevan begins to plan their next move, but he worries about maneuvering Frank through the city in his wheelchair. Frank tells Jeevan not to worry about him and that he intends to “leave first.”

Kirsten asks Diallo whether he has Arthur’s New York Times obituary. He does, but she is disappointed when that it fails to identify the man who performed CPR. She explains that, when her parents did not pick her up, Tanya dropped her off at home with her brother Peter. She adds that she kept the paperweight Tanya gave her because “it was beautiful” (184).

On day 58, after two days of silence, Jeevan asks Frank to read him an excerpt from the philanthropist’s memoir he is ghostwriting. He does so, reading a passage about how celebrities use their fame for charitable causes, but they never seek fame with charity in mind, instead wanting “to be seen” and “to be remembered” (187).

Diallo asks Kirsten about her time in Toronto with her brother. She tells him that, after a few days of hiding, they walked southeast into the United States.

After Frank dies due to an intentional overdose of sleeping pills, Jeevan leaves the apartment and sets out alongside Lake Ontario. After walking for five days, he encounters and approaches three other people. They travel together for a week, then separate, with Jeevan wanting to avoid towns. He keeps walking and feels as though his identity is slipping away.

Kirsten tells Diallo that she does not remember the year she spent on the road with her brother. He suggests that it must have been difficult for her as a child, but she wonders if the transition was harder on adults because “the more you remember, the more you’ve lost” (195).