Zombies have been metaphors for many diseases; in Ling Ma’s deft satire, it’s the disease of modern capitalism. But these aren’t the monsters you’re used to; rather than eating brains, the victims of Shen Fever fall into the repetitive routines of life — setting the table, reading a book — going through the motions until their bodies fall apart. Fun! And yet Ma manages to balance her post-apocalyptic vision with just enough dry humor that it’s neither grim nor heavy-handedly allegorical. Instead, Severance is simultaneously daring and restrained. We follow office worker Candace Chen through two parallel timelines — one in which she slogs through her days at a publisher of specialty bibles; the other in which society has collapsed and Candace makes her way, with a small cult-like band of survivors, toward a promised land (or is it a mall?). Ma’s great skill is in making the familiar seem utterly fresh, even as she shows us how deadening our familiar lives can be.