Sea of Tranquility
A Novel
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4.2 • 147 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“One of [Mandel’s] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet.” —The New York Times
“Mandel’s sensational sixth novel offers immense pleasures of puzzle box plotting and high-flying imagination. . . . Masterfully plotted and deeply moving, this visionary novel folds back on itself like a hall of mirrors to explore just what connects us to one another, and how many extraordinary contingencies bring us to each ordinary day of our lives.” —Esquire
From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, a “bold and exciting” (The Economist) and “transcendent” (Wall Street Journal) novel filled with “puncturing emotional truths” (Glamour)
In this captivating tale of imagination and ambition, a seemingly disparate array of people come into contact with a time traveller who must resist the pull to change the past and the future. The cast includes a British exile on the west coast of Canada in the early 1900s; the author of a bestselling novel about a fictional pandemic who embarks on a galaxy-spanning book tour during the outbreak of an actual pandemic; a resident of a moon colony almost 300 years in the future; and a lonely girl who films an old-growth forest and experiences a disruption in the recording. Blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, Emily St. John Mandel’s dazzling story follows these engrossing characters across space and time as their lives ultimately intersect.
Sea of Tranquility is a breathtaking and wondrous examination of the ties that bind us together, by a master storyteller.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
“Plagues, steamships, detectives, and time travel! Sign me up! Emily St. John Mandel constructs powerful landscapes to get lost in with sharp, intelligent, and intensely drawn characters,” George Stroumboulopoulos says. “I am delighted to have this immensely talented writer from Canada be part of Strombo’s Lit.” In Mandel’s mind-bending novel, a single event ripples through generations. Time-travelling investigator Gaspery-Jacques Roberts has been tasked with looking into an anomaly experienced by three unrelated people over the course of three different centuries. Beginning in 1912, Roberts must visit each period to determine how an English aristocrat, a young girl, and a famous author could all have witnessed the same phenomenon—one that left each of them questioning their sight, their sanity, and even their own existence. Station Eleven author Mandel masterfully weaves together multiple storylines into one fast-paced read that took us through time and space with unending excitement. We were impressed by the way she incorporates poignant themes of love, humanity, and tragedy into one enthralling tale. Sea of Tranquility is a thought-provoking story about the inexplicable ways in which we’re all connected.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Mandel's stunning latest, people find themselves inhabiting different places and times, from early 20th-century Canada to a 23rd-century moon colony. Edwin St. Andrew's wealthy British family banishes him to Canada after his unpatriotic opinions disrupt a dinner party. Walking in the dense forest near tiny Caiette, B.C., in 1912, he suddenly hears haunting violin music and a human bustle. In 2020 Brooklyn, avant-garde composer Paul James Smith shapes a composition around a fragmentary video shot by his late half sister Vincent (both characters appeared in Mandel's The Glass Hotel). Its footage of the forest outside Caiette, where Vincent was raised, is abruptly interrupted by a black screen and a collage of sounds including violin notes, a "dim cacophony" reminiscent of a train station, and "a strange kind of whoosh." Author Olive Llewellyn leaves her home on the moon's second colony in 2203 to promote her bestselling "pandemic novel" on Earth. As a new virus spreads through Australia, she fields questions about a scene in the book, based on personal experience, in which a character listening to violin music in an Oklahoma City airship terminal feels briefly transported to a forest. In 2401, the secretive, powerful Time Institute is concerned by the glitch that Edwin, Vincent, and Olive have all experienced. When they send investigator Gaspery-Jacques Roberts back in time to discover more, the novel's narratives crystallize flawlessly. Brilliantly combining imagery from science fiction and the current pandemic, Mandel grounds her rich metaphysical speculation in small, beautifully observed human moments. By turns playful, tragic, and tender, this should not be missed.
Customer Reviews
CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE
An attractive story to bring home the truth of a journey through seeing with new/different eyes. And, in some way, easier to fathom when situated in pandemic times…not so apocalyptic, not so far-fetched.
Sea of Tranquility
What a waste of time and money. I couldn’t finish this book. The author must have been drifting on a smoke cloud to compile so much nothingness in one book.
Sea of Tranquility
Another Mandel brilliant novel. At first feeling a bit awkward, it soon became clear that this gem of a book was subtly brilliant with many twists and turns. It captures the strange enigmas of time travel while at the same time the humanity of people. Also appreciated the author’s tie ins to her previous novel and it’s characters. Wow.