Is it the end of the world, or just another day at the office ? Candace Chen—newly minted New Yorker, first-generation American, recent orphan, millennial worker bee—loves going to work. She likes the routine, and the anonymity of the city. She likes coordinating the production of specialty Bibles—having a project to complete, an object to create, troubles to shoot. Sometimes she likes watching movies in her boyfriend's basement apartment.
Lather, rinse, repeat. So Candace barely notices when Shen Fever sweeps New York Families flee. Companies cease operation. The subways squeak to a halt. Persuaded by a big payout to be a one-person skeleton crew at the office, she spends her free time photographing the abandoned city as an anonymous blogger : NY Ghost. Eventually, though, Candace will have to escape from Manhattan. Enter a group of survivors, led by a power-hungry IT specialist named 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 guarding a secret Bob will certainly exploit. Will her rescuers become her captors ? 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 in which the end of the world gets put in its rightful place—just another setback for an already besieged culture.
Most of all, it's a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.
Is it the end of the world, or just another day at the office ? Candace Chen—newly minted New Yorker, first-generation American, recent orphan, millennial worker bee—loves going to work. She likes the routine, and the anonymity of the city. She likes coordinating the production of specialty Bibles—having a project to complete, an object to create, troubles to shoot. Sometimes she likes watching movies in her boyfriend's basement apartment.
Lather, rinse, repeat. So Candace barely notices when Shen Fever sweeps New York Families flee. Companies cease operation. The subways squeak to a halt. Persuaded by a big payout to be a one-person skeleton crew at the office, she spends her free time photographing the abandoned city as an anonymous blogger : NY Ghost. Eventually, though, Candace will have to escape from Manhattan. Enter a group of survivors, led by a power-hungry IT specialist named 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 guarding a secret Bob will certainly exploit. Will her rescuers become her captors ? 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 in which the end of the world gets put in its rightful place—just another setback for an already besieged culture.
Most of all, it's a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.
