Emily St. John Mandel Returns With 'Exit Party', Expanding Her Literary Universe

Emily St. John Mandel has spent seven novels traversing centuries, continents and planets, building not just a body of work but an interconnected fictional world that admirers call the Mandelverse. Her latest novel, "Exit Party," deepens that web.

"It means that the novels, although they can be read entirely alone and independently, have this web of connections between them," Mandel said in an interview at a Manhattan cafe. "I think it's fair to say that I have certain interests and I'll build on that and build on that and build on that over time."

"Exit Party" brings together characters and themes familiar to readers of "Station Eleven," "Sea of Tranquility" and her other books. The narrative merges two genres she has long worked in — crime fiction and science fiction — while continuing her explorations of chaos, identity, impermanence and transcendence.

Like "Station Eleven," the new book unfolds in a post-traumatic future. It opens in Los Angeles in 2031, with Ari Waker — a character from Mandel's 2010 novel "The Singer's Gun" — released from prison amid the breakup of the United States. The story spans the decades that follow, as alternative lives surface and social rules blur to the point where, Mandel writes, being a criminal or joining the police are "two sides of the same coin."

Mandel's own life has a dual quality. She holds Canadian and U.S. citizenship, divides her time between New York and Los Angeles with her wife Laura Barisonzi, and works as both novelist and screenwriter. She is currently adapting "Last Night in Montreal" and "Exit Party" for the screen.

Born Emily St. John Fairbanks, the 47-year-old author has imagined alternate and distant worlds for much of her life, an impulse she traces partly to growing up for years in a small community on Canada's Denman Island. She never formally studied literature or took a creative writing course, and her education falls just short of a high school diploma; she left school to pursue dance at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.

"Nothing on paper points to this life, but here we are," she said.

Three novels preceded "Station Eleven," which was published in 2014 and marked her move from the independent Unbridled Books to Alfred A. Knopf, a Penguin Random House imprint. Jenny Jackson, her editor at Knopf, recalled hearing about Mandel and the following she had built among booksellers before her agent sent the manuscript for "Station Eleven."

"I loved the book," Jackson said. "Here was this author who already had grassroots support and I knew she was poised to break out."

Mandel's story of a world devastated by a lethal flu virus became a bestseller and a National Book Award finalist six years before the coronavirus pandemic lent it the unwanted status of prophecy. "Station Eleven" has sold more than 1 million copies, was adapted into an HBO miniseries and was ranked in a New York Times author survey among the 21st century's best books.

Reflecting on her development, Mandel said she has become a better writer. "The Singer's Gun" was written long ago, when she was more likely to question herself and reluctant to stray too far outside literary or noir lines. "At this point in my career, I feel a real sense of freedom," she said. "I feel like I can write in whatever genre I want."

The idea of the life not lived has long appealed to her — the different spouse, school or job that would have made a person somewhat different over time. She noted that, having trained as a dancer, it is easy to imagine a version of her life in which she kept dancing and stayed in Canada.

She has been writing since childhood, from age 9, but treated it as a hobby. After a nondegree conservatory program in contemporary dance left her with substantial student loans, she found herself working in the back room of a Montreal store, putting stickers on martini glasses. "That wasn't something I exactly wanted to do," she said. "So I thought, 'Well, what comes next?' And I thought, 'Maybe I should start writing.'"

She acknowledged having feared being pigeonholed, saying she has great respect for crime writers but did not want to be confined to one category. Asked about her next project, she said it needs to not be speculative fiction.

On the ruptures and respites that mark her fictional worlds, Mandel said she expects "multiple ruptures and lots of pleasant interludes in between." Her abiding concern, she added, is whether beauty can be found in impermanence. "We need to find peace with the idea that nothing lasts forever."