August 4 - 'Severance' by Ling Ma.
Downsizing, corporate drones, and a zombie plague! In this satirical, all-too-real novel, Candace Chen lives in a dystopian, crumbling New York City - until she must escape it. Banding together with others to escape proves an even stranger and more alienating experience, but Candace is nothing if not a survivor. According to Wikipedia, "Ma said she decided to write about otherness and alienation via the trope of zombie apocalypse' rather than write the 'traditional immigration novel' expected in her Master of Fine Arts program at Cornell. The resulting book, a New York Times Notable Book of 2018, won awards and praise in both popular and literary arenas for its imagination, fierce spirit, and commentaries on modern life, work, and identity.