Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine: her work, watching movies with her boyfriend, avoiding thoughts of her recently deceased Chinese immigrant parents. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps the world.
Candace joins a small group of survivors, led by the power-hungry Bob, on their way to the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?
A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Severance is a moving family story, a deadpan satire and a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.
'This a biting indictment of late-stage capitalism and a chilling vision of what comes after. . . [Ma] knows her craft, and it shows. . . Ma also offers lovely meditations on memory and the immigrant experience. Smart, funny, humane, and superbly well-written.' Kirkus Reviews
'With scathing wit and savage imagination, Ling Ma's apocalyptic office novel Severance invites readers to recognize both the humor and dangers of America's decadent consumerism. In her disconcertingly plausible world, Ma is able to atomize the absurdity of everyday life into something digestible, even downright funny.' Best Books of 2018, Paris Review
'Severance is simultaneously daring and restrained. . . Ma's great skill is in making the familiar seem utterly fresh, even as she shows us how deadening our familiar lives can be.' Vulture
'Severance is a scathing portrait of a society collapsing under its own ungovernable appetites, as well as a haunting meditation on family inheritance and its loss.' Huffington Post
