Sea of Tranquility
The instant Sunday Times bestseller from the author of Station Eleven
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4.2 • 111 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
From Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony of the moon three hundred years later, the Sunday Times bestseller, Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel is a story of parallel worlds and possibilities that plays with the very line along which time should run.
'So wise, so graceful, so rich' - Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
'Ingenious' - Guardian
Lives separated by time and space have collided, and an exiled Englishman, a writer trapped far from home, and a girl destined to die too young, have each glimpsed a world that is not their own. Travelling through the centuries, between colonies on the moon and an ever-changing Earth, together their lives will solve a mystery that will make you question everything you thought you knew to be true.
From the award-winning author of Station Eleven.
A Best Book of the Year - Guardian, Oprah Daily, Barack Obama
'Brilliant and fiercely original' - Observer
'One of her finest novels' - New York Times
'Transcendent' - Wall Street Journal
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A single event ripples through generations in Emily St. John Mandel’s mind-bending sixth novel. Time-travelling detective 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 takes you through time and space with unending excitement. Poignantly weaving 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
Simply
Beautiful