Emily St John Mandel returns with Exit Party, a novel of America after a second civil war
The author of Station Eleven publishes her seventh novel, revisiting characters from earlier books in a story set five years into an imagined future.
Emily St John Mandel's seventh novel, Exit Party, has been reviewed by The Guardian, which describes a book set in 2031, five years beyond the present day. The story follows Ari Waker, released from prison after eighteen years for orchestrating an attempted contract killing of her cousin Anton — a plot that ties back to Mandel's 2009 novel The Singer's Gun, in which Anton first appears trying to break from his criminal family.
According to the review, the United States has ceased to exist by the time of the novel, following a second civil war that has devastated lives and the economy. The book also loosely connects to Mandel's 2020 novel The Glass Hotel, though the review notes that readers need not have read either earlier title to follow Exit Party — familiarity simply adds, in the reviewer's words, 'extra pleasure and a sense of homecoming.'
The review frames the novel around a central question — whether stability necessarily comes at the cost of freedom — explored through what it calls two alternate visions of a post-crisis America. It also traces Mandel's development as a novelist, from what the reviewer describes as her earlier quirky tales of offbeat protagonists to the world-spanning, politically resonant narratives that have won her a wide following, notably since her 2014 novel Station Eleven.
No French publisher or translation has been mentioned in the material available.
Sources
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