A top-notch flu-pandemic end of civilization novel that reminded me of similar novels by David Mitchell, with linked and mirrored relationships between pre and post apocalyptic characters, ways of life, and an imagined graphic novel with the same title as this novel.
The standard tropes and tensions of the apocalyptic novel that we are so familiar with, mostly from the surfeit of zombie TV shows, are used, but downplayed a little by the author's interest in a more wistful and nostalgic look at what would be lost. The literary angle of the book leads to a more positive outlook than something like Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece, The Road.
It happens every day, but I found the idea of a fragment of a long lost book affecting different people in different ages and scattered places to be both moving and encouraging.