New York (AP) – In a relaxed interview at a Manhattan Upper East Side café, bestselling novelist Emily St. John Mandel talked about her latest work, Exit Party, and how it builds on the interconnected world readers have come to call the “Mandelverse.”
Connecting past and future stories
“The novels, although they can be read entirely alone and independently, have this web of connections between them,” Mandel explained. She said she often returns to the same ideas, layering them over time to create a richer tapestry of narrative.
Exit Party brings together characters and motifs from earlier books such as Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility. The new novel blends the crime fiction and science‑fiction genres that have defined her career, while continuing her exploration of chaos, identity, impermanence and transcendence.
Plot set in a fractured America
The story opens in Los Angeles in 2031, a time when the United States has broken apart. Protagonist Ari Waker – previously introduced in Mandel’s 2010 novel The Singer’s Gun – has just been released from prison. Over the following decades, the narrative follows alternate lives and blurs the line between law‑enforcement and criminality, which Mandel describes as “two sides of the same coin.”
Personal background informs the work
Mandel, who holds dual Canadian‑U.S. citizenship, lives in both New York and Los Angeles with her wife, Laura Barisonzi. She is also developing screen adaptations of her recent novels, including Last Night in Montreal and Exit Party.
Born Emily St. John Fairbanks, the 47‑year‑old grew up on Denman Island in Canada. She never completed a formal literature degree, dropping out of high school to pursue a career in dance at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. “Nothing on paper points to this life, but here we are,” she said.
Career milestones and critical acclaim
Before Station Eleven (2014), Mandel published three novels. The pandemic‑era bestseller, a speculative tale of a world devastated by a lethal flu, became a National Book Award finalist and sold more than one million copies. It was later adapted into an HBO miniseries and ranked among the 21st‑century’s best books in a New York Times author survey.
Editor Jenny Jackson of Alfred A. Knopf recalled early enthusiasm for Mandel’s work, noting the author’s “grassroots support” and the sense that she was poised to break out.
Reflections on writing and hope
When asked about her evolution as a writer, Mandel said she now feels a “real sense of freedom” to write in any genre. She described the recurring theme of “the life you didn’t live” – imagining alternate paths such as staying in Canada as a dancer – as a way to explore how time reshapes identity.
She also spoke candidly about her working‑class upbringing, student‑loan debt from a non‑degree conservatory program, and early jobs that included sticking stickers on martini glasses in a Montreal store. Those experiences, she said, fueled her determination to pursue writing rather than remain in retail.
Looking ahead
Looking to the future, Mandel hinted that her next book may move away from speculative fiction, promising “multiple ruptures and lots of pleasant interludes” while continuing to seek beauty in impermanence.
Fans of Mandel’s earlier novels will recognize familiar threads, but newcomers can expect a fresh blend of crime intrigue and speculative world‑building that reflects the author’s lifelong fascination with how lives intersect across time and space.
Original reporting: Alexandria, VA News – WTOP News — read the source article.
