Hyperlink Your BOOKS commented on Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Content warning Comparisons of TV show & Novel, spoilers for both
Well it seems confirmed at this point that Jeevan and Kirsten did not have any relationship in the first 15 years, and most likely not in the first 20. Maybe they will meet again at some point, but in the year 15 interview bits she recalls him only as the man who performed CPR on Arthur and was kind to her.
I was genuinely spooked by the disappearances of the members of the traveling symphony, and Kirsten and August getting separated from them. The world of the novel seems significantly more threatening than the one of the TV show, though they both contain dangers and human compassion. In the book, Kirsten talks about how things have settled down from the violence and chaos of the early years, but when we meet the traveling symphony they are thrown immediately into a dangerous situation. In the TV show Kirsten is clearly traumatised by violence, but what we see of the early years seems like a continuation of civilisation, just scaled down - most striking for me was that only a year after the event somebody was plowing roads through the winter snow - and when we meet the traveling symphony they are having a good experience in a peaceful town on their usual route. And yet as Jeevan is setting out from his brother's apartment in the novel, the only danger he seems to face, despite his fears, is isolation. Perhaps there's something about the different experiences of men and women, adults and children, in that.