Story thread · 6 reports / 6 sources

Talking To Emily St. John Mandel About Revision, Timeline Corruption, And Living Without A Floor

defector.com · 4dShare

The first line of Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel Exit Party sets the tone of the whole book. She writes, “In the first spring after the collapse of the United States, the blossoming of the jacaranda trees felt to Ari like grace.” We have been dropped into yet another one of Mandel’s post-apocalyptic worlds, but, as with Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility, it retains a vivid glimmer of hope and life. The book introduces Ari as our protagonist, but, as with other Mandel books, she is not our only main character. The first section of the novel is called the A side, and begins with a party in Los Angeles where something strange happens. We quickly come to find out that this isn’t our only world. A parallel universe, this record's B side, features many of the same people and places. Both worlds contain a sought-after painting, but where Ari’s America is grappling with the fallout of a second Civil War, this other version is a surveillance state. At first glance the B side appears more

First report: Emily St. John Mandel’s Latest Protagonist Has Haunted Eyes and a Strong Jaw — nytimes.com, 7d