Book of the Week: EXIT PARTY by Emily St. John Mandel
There are many possible futures for our crisis-riven present. Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel explores two of these, probing them in parallel and then tracing what happens when their separation is breached, albeit very slightly. The strength and fascination of the book is St. John Mandel’s sensitivity to her characters and the ways in which they respond and change to circumstances, be those of their wider worlds or or of the moment that they touch: the biggest issues are always felt on a very personal scale.
”What makes Exit Party a superlative example of the form is its structural cohesiveness, its expert play of signs and symbols, its psychological realism. Mandel's imaginative landscapes have from the first been intricately constructed, an elegant dance in which plot, character and idea appear effortlessly matched. In Exit Party, her ability to handle a complex array of material while never once allowing her focus to drift from the human story reaches new heights. Extraordinary.” —The Guardian