Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel’s story of a global pandemic that destroys civilisation has won this year’s Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction.
Game of Thrones author George RR Martin endorsed the "deeply melancholy" novel, declaring it to be "beautifully written, and wonderfully elegiac."
As the story begins, it’s Year Twenty Twenty after the "Georgia Flu" has wiped out humankind and there are flashbacks to the final days of civilisation. The narrative tells of a troupe of travelling actors and musicians bringing Shakespeare to the few American survivors.
"While many post-apocalypse novels focus on the survival of humanity, Station Eleven focuses instead on the survival of our culture, with the novel becoming an elegy for the hyper-globalised present," said chair of the judges, Andrew M Butler.
The travelling actors, are neatly enough, Science Fictions fans too, who take their motto from Star Trek: “Because survival is insufficient.”
Past winners of the award, whose prize money is £2,015 (€2,700 Euro) include Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, Neal Stephenson and Ann Leckie.
