Emily St. John Mandel on Writing a Novel of Dystopian Counterlives
Post-pandemic dystopias are at the center of Emily St. John Mandel’s most celebrated novels. Station Eleven (2014), which won the Prix des Libraires du Québec, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the
Emily St. John Mandel has authored several celebrated dystopian novels, including Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility. Her latest work, Exit Party, takes a political turn, set in the year 2031. The story follows characters from Mandel's previous books, including Ari Waker, the protagonist from The Singer's Gun, and Lucas Alkaitis, the painter from The Glass Hotel.
The novel begins with Ari's release from prison and her struggle to adapt to the fractured United States, which has since broken apart into separate nation-states. Ari's journey involves encounters with doubles and encounters with a parallel authoritarian United States. Mandel was drawn to the counterlives of her characters, as well as the intriguing concept of quantum entanglement theory. The title, Exit Party, was chosen by Mandel's wife after much deliberation.
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