'People say it’s amazing I wrote a novel during the pandemic, and for me it’s like, no, the novel is what kept me sane'
about a world-ravaging virus, years before Covid-19 was a thing. Her latest book,You’re frequently referred to as “the author who predicted the pandemic” with your post-apocalyptic bookI read a lot about the history of pandemics when I was writing Station Eleven and something that became clear is that there will always be another one. Because we hadn’t had a pandemic in this part of the world for so long, my book was perceived as prescient, but I don’t feel like I predicted anything.
Partly, yes, but what’s surprising is that those are the sections I wrote before the pandemic. And then Covid hit and everything was so intense. I live in New York City and it was constant sirens day and night. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, it was just this atmosphere of death, and Sea of Tranquility became a refuge for me. People say it’s amazing I wrote a novel during the pandemic, and for me it’s like, no, the novel is what kept me sane. You have such control in a fictional world, which can make it a very appealing retreat.I’ve always been a fan of sci-fi. And lockdown made it hard for me to escape my apartment.
In the novel, Olive tells her fans that her books don’t have messages—they are to entertain. Is that how you feel, too? As a reader I’ve always disliked books that sledgehammer me with the message. I like to think 10 people could read my books and come away with 10 different messages. I guess when I’m writing a book, I’m thinking about a particular thing. With Station Eleven, I was thinking about the fragility of civilization. With Sea of Tranquility, I wanted to write about the idea that the world is always ending and a new world is rising up to take its place.
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