Review: Severance

Severance by Ling Ma
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If the COVID-19 pandemic has you feeling overwhelmed or on the edge, you may want to take a minute (or a couple of years) before reading Severance by Ling Ma.  You've been warned.  I listened to the audiobook narrated by Nancy Wu.  

Mind you, Severance was published in 2018, and I put it on my To Be Read list a long time ago.  I did not recall what it was about.  I just knew I had been waiting for it to be available from the library FOREVER and was going to read it now that I finally had the chance. The main character is a single woman living in New York City during a global pandemic that originated in China.  Boy, was that familiar!  There are N95 masks, mask mandates, global travel bans, and teleworking mandates involved.  She ends up in another place I've lived and will be going to again this week, so still creepily familiar.  I almost had to stop listening because it was feeling too real and sad.  I stuck with it because I hoped Ling Ma saw the future for us and maybe there was some hope.  You'll have to read the book yourself to find out.

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