Severance

Ling Ma


“Memories beget memories. Shen Fever being a disease of remembrance, the fevered are trapped indefinitely… But what is the difference between the fevered and us? Because I remember too, I remember perfectly.”

A year before the onset of COVID-19, Ling Ma made her literary debut with this satirical science fiction masterpiece. Set during a global pandemic that originated in China, Severance was the author's answer to the classic immigrant novel. Edgy and comedic, eerie and award-winning, she chose instead to pen something entirely unexpected - a new brand of zombie apocalypse novel, a millennial prophesy.