Ten books that get the theatre world right

Brittany K. Allen is a writer and actor living in Brooklyn.

At Lit Hub she tagged ten books "that nail theatre. (And theatre people.)" One title on the list:

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

I’ve been meaning to reread this elegant spec-fic, but it’s taken a few years to sidle back up to the inciting incident (in which a pandemic decimates the world population). Much of the novel’s action unfolds around a traveling Shakespeare company, plying their stories a generation after the end of the old world. What St. John Mandel beautifully nails about theatre people is their delusional commitment, and the mad love that guides the enterprise. The first time I read it this book restored my faith in the power of communal storytelling.

Read about another title on the list.

Station Eleven is among Jeanette Horn's nine twisted novels about theatrical performers, Isabelle McConville's fifteen books for fans of the post-apocalyptic TV-drama Fallout, Joanna Quinn's six best books set in & around the theatrical world, Carolyn Quimby's 38 best dystopian novels, Tara Sonin's seven books for fans of Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, Maggie Stiefvater's five fantasy books about artists & the magic of creativity, Mark Skinner's five top literary dystopias, Claudia Gray's five essential books about plagues and pandemics, K Chess's five top fictional books inside of real books, Rebecca Kauffman's ten top musical novels, Nathan Englander’s ten favorite books, M.L. Rio’s five top novels inspired by Shakespeare, Anne Corlett's five top books with different takes on the apocalypse, Christopher Priest’s five top sci-fi books that make use of music, and Anne Charnock's five favorite books with fictitious works of art.

--Marshal Zeringue