快放下你手邊的工作，看看外面的世界是否安好！

　　任何人都不可能想到──真的，任何人都不可能想到，當你正埋首於工作之中，世界居然就在你燃燒自我的時候毀滅了。
　　這實在是，太沒有天理了。而且老實說，那還不是一份你衷心熱愛的工作。

　　坎蒂絲(Candace Chen)正在曼哈頓辦公大樓裡，一如往常地努力工作著。她的父母剛剛去世了，此刻她的人生充斥著許多不確定，但她仍然試圖依照往常的節奏生活、工作。

　　然而就當坎蒂絲正埋首於工作時，一場瘟疫席捲了紐約。坎蒂絲毫無所覺。當她回過神來，人們已經紛紛逃離、公司被迫暫停營運、地鐵停駛了，坎蒂絲因而被主管任命為(人數所剩無幾的)核心團隊的一員，勉力維持公司運作。這場瘟疫，病毒的症狀駭人：感染病毒的人如同殭屍，他們不會攻擊其他人類，而是會自行不斷重複過往人生中的某一個動作，直到整個人的身體徹底崩潰。因此，染病的店員，不斷重複摺衣服、攤開、再摺，直至身體分崩離析。

　　直到整個公司的經營團隊只剩下坎蒂絲一個人仍未染病，她開始拍攝毛骨悚然、被人遺棄的城市，並經營著一個匿名部落格NY Ghost。

　　她是絕對不可能單靠自己，在這場疫情中獨自存活下去的，她遇見了一個由IT技術人員鮑伯(Bob)所管理的倖存者聚落，這個團體正前往一個稱作「設施」的地方，而鮑伯承諾大家：他們將會擁有可以建造一個新社會的所有資源。

　　而坎蒂絲帶著一個秘密，她知道擁有權力野心的鮑伯將會樂於利用它……她是否應該逃離這群「拯救」她的人？

　　在這個怪異、幽默、令人意想不到的作品中，作者暗諷資本主義高度發展的社會中，令人悚然的現象，並在小說中揭示了其後將可能發生的事。(文/博客來編譯)

Winner of the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award * Winner of the Kirkus Prize for Fiction * Winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award * Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel * A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 * An Indie Next Selection

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: NPR * The New Yorker ("Books We Loved") * Elle * Marie Claire * Amazon Editors * The Paris Review (Staff Favorites) * Refinery29 *Bustle *Buzzfeed *BookPage *Bookish * Mental Floss * Chicago Review of Books * HuffPost * Electric Literature * A.V. Club * Jezebel * Vulture * Literary Hub * Flavorwire

"A fierce debut from a writer with seemingly boundless imagination. . . A stunning, audacious book with a fresh take on both office politics and what the apocalypse might bring." --Michael Schaub, NPR.org

Maybe it's the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma's offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, Severance.

Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she's had her fill of uncertainty. She's content just to carry on: She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend.

So Candace barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies cease operations. The subways screech to a halt. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.

Candace won't be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They're traveling to a place called 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, Ling Ma's Severance is a moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it's a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.



About the Author

　　Ling Ma was born in Sanming, China, and grew up in Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas. She attended the University of Chicago and received an MFA from Cornell University. Prior to graduate school she worked as a journalist and an editor. Her writing has appeared in Granta, VICE, Playboy, Chicago Reader, Ninth Letter, and other publications. A chapter of Severance received the 2015 Graywolf SLS Prize. She lives in Chicago.