Seven books about navigating a post-pandemic world

Sequoia Nagamatsu is the author of the novels How High We Go in the Dark and Girl Zero, and the story collection, Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone.

At Electric Lit he tagged seven novels which

deal with a world changing event (a viral pandemic or something just as significant), but for all the background nods to cataclysm, these wildly inventive and deeply affecting stories ultimately focus on what it means to be human, what it means to be part of a community and the world at large.

One title on the list:

The Companions by Katie Flynn

Although there is a pandemic in this novel, the virus that has decimated large segments of the populace takes a backseat to the technological wonder of uploading your consciousness into artificial companions (everything from very robotic-like contraptions to models that could potentially replace you). The primary thread of the novel focuses on the companion, Lilac, as she ventures to find out who killed her in her real/original life. We soon meet other primary POV characters that help both Lilac and the worldbuilding of this future. As the pandemic subsides, questions of mortality are understandably present but the technology also raises questions about the fundamental nature of identity/self and humanity. Readers who liked Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and Klara and the Sun should check this out.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Companions is among Michael J. Seidlinger's twelve underrated pandemic books.

The Page 69 Test: The Companions.

--Marshal Zeringue