Emily St. John Mandel is back with a stunning sci-fi trip to a parallel world

Exit Party Emily St. John Mandel, Pan Macmillan It is always a big deal when Emily St. John Mandel, the much-feted author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquillity, has a new novel out, and her latest doesn’t disappoint. Exit Party is a parallel-universe story that flits backwards and forwards in time, from character to character, and eventually between worlds. It is as elegant and brilliantly executed as her fans have grown to expect, a book where every detail matters. I will give only the general set-up in this review, so no need to fear spoilers. Advertisement We begin in California, 2031. The US has been torn apart by war, but the curfew in Los Angeles has just been lifted. Our main protagonist, Ari, and her roommate Gloria plan to go to a party. (I read this very early section a few times before sticking with it, so if you find yourself in the same situation, know that it’s worth pushing on.) Ari has just spent 20 years in prison for taking out a hit on someone, and she is very keen to party, but Gloria is reluctant to leave home when it comes to it. She shows signs of PTSD and mentions another party where a bomb went off. Eventually the two get to the party, and find the house full of flowers and the host, Kareem, warm and welcoming. At first, everything feels magical and exciting, but later something goes badly wrong, in ways that will take years for Ari to unravel. “There were extra people,” is how a guest at the party explains it. Yes, there are too many people at the party. At one point, Ari realises a woman is there in two completely different outfits; are they twins? The next day, Kareem is missing, having vanished entirely. Exit Party is as elegant and brilliantly executed as fans have grown to expect Exit Party‘s structure is unusual, playing with time and points of view as your understanding of what is really going on deepens. St. John Mandel’s plotting skills and ability to build character quickly mean that the book never loses its dramatic intensity and forward propulsion as we make our leaps in time and viewpoint. Thinking over the book, once I had finished it, I was struck by how much St. John Mandel was able to explore through her two-worlds structure, in what isn’t a long book. We get to imagine how different a person might be if life dealt them a different hand, or if they lived in a different world, a world also broken but in a very different way, perhaps. We also get to ponder how, without witnesses to sections of our life, we can end up in a different world without having to cross between universes. Oh, and so much more. It is a wonderfully thoughtful book. Novels by St. John Mandel are usually described as speculative or dystopian fiction. This one also counts as old-fashioned sci-fi, I guess, because of the parallel universes, but there is close to zero science, because how people cross between worlds isn’t the point. This is about fate, courage, character and destiny, through the prism of parallel worlds. A key facet of the book is also that Ari has premonitions, where she (sort of) knows what is going to happen next. Again, a science-free zone, but it makes for great entertainment. My only bone to pick is that I never bought Ari’s full backstory. We are meant to believe that this canny, well-prepared, criminally savvy and basically OK woman, who also happens to experience strong premonitions, would take out a clumsy hit on one of her very few close relatives. Hmmm. Anyway, that aside, bravo to Emily St. John Mandel, an absolute force in modern fiction. Emily also recommends… TV Fringe Created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, This five-season TV show was uneven on many levels, to say the least. However it was also a bold and at times wildly creative exploration of parallel universes, with moments of absolute genius. Emily H. Wilson is the author of the Sumerians series (Inanna, Gilgamesh and Ninshubar, all published by Titan) and she is currently working on her first sci-fi novel. She is a former editor of New Scientist and you can follow her on Instagram @emilyhwilson1. When you make a purchase via the links on this page, we receive a commission.