Synopsis
From the bestselling author of Station Eleven, Exit Party is Emily St. John Mandel’s new mind-bending epic: a story of crimes committed and loves lost across space and time.
2031. America is at war with itself, but for the first time in weeks there is some hope: the Republic of California has been declared, the curfew in Los Angeles is lifted, and everyone in the city is going to a party.
Ari, newly released from prison, arrives with her friend Gloria just as a fragile new era begins. But there are people at the party who shouldn’t be there. Something is very wrong . . .
Years later, living a different life in Paris, Ari remains haunted by that night. Whatever happened at the party fractured her sense of reality – and may hold the key to a very different world.
Freedom and surveillance, art and survival, love and loss in a broken world: Exit Party is the electrifying new novel from Emily St. John Mandel.
Praise for Emily St. John Mandel:
'It is heaven to be immersed in the waters of Mandel's imagination' – Naomi Alderman
'Emily St. John Mandel conjures indelible visuals, and her writing is pure elegance' – Patrick deWitt
'Mandel is a terrific storyteller' – The Sunday Times
'No one can create beautiful, enmeshed, startingly clever worlds the way Mandel does' – Daisy Johnson
'A damn fine novel . . . haunting and evocative and immersive . . . I am a big Emily St. John Mandel fanboy' – George R.R. Martin, on The Glass Hotel
'A spiraling, transportive triumph of storytelling – sci-fi with soul' – Kiran Millwood Hargrave on Sea of Tranquility
Details
17 September 2026
9781035081288Reviews
[A] glittering puzzle box of a novel . . . This is [Mandel’s] best novel since Station Eleven (2014), a cause for rejoicing among her fans and an inspiration for newbies to dive into the backlist. Both a thrilling read and a virtuoso demonstration of the moral and philosophical possibilities of speculative fiction
Mandel always writes with clarity and precision. Her perceptive new dystopian novel explores what is lost in a rush to safety; it’s a hymn to what falls when the center doesn’t hold
As ever in her own wholly original and singular way, Mandel offers up a completely compelling, richly rendered yarn that's sure to generate both major interest and discussion
