In Satirical 'Severance,' A Stricken Country Works Itself To Death
When a disease wipes out most of the U.S. population, Candace Chen is the last one left at the office. Ling Ma began work on the apocalyptic novel right before she got laid off from her own job.
Ling Ma was in the last months of a tedious office job when she began writing her first novel. The company was downsizing, and as her coworkers got laid off, the office became "silent and desolate," Ma recalls.
Eventually Ma lost her job, too. The first few weeks were liberating — she called her unemployment check her "arts fellowship"
