Sea of Tranquility
A novel
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4.1 • 1.5K Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.
One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads
“One of [Mandel’s] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet.” —The New York Times
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.
A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A single event ripples through generations in Emily St. John Mandel’s mind-bending novel. Time-traveling 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
Definitely written during COVID
Good book. I didn’t get into it until halfway, and that’s when I couldn’t put it down. You can tell it was written during COVID based on one of the time periods. I look forward to reading more of her work.
Maybe I do like science fiction…
"Sea of Tranquility" by Emily St. John Mandel**
"Sea of Tranquility" is a speculative fiction novel by Emily St. John Mandel, published in 2022. The novel explores themes of time, memory, and the nature of reality through a series of interconnected stories spanning several centuries. Known for her ability to blend literary fiction with elements of science fiction, Mandel continues to captivate readers with her nuanced storytelling and richly developed characters.
The narrative of "Sea of Tranquility" is structured around multiple timelines and characters, whose lives intersect in unexpected ways:
1. **1912**: Edwin St. John St. Andrew, a young Englishman, travels to Canada after a family scandal. While exploring the wilderness, he experiences a strange anomaly—a brief glimpse of a modern air terminal.
2. **2020**: Mirella Kessler, mourning the death of her husband, meets Vincent, a videographer who has recorded a peculiar event in an air terminal. Mirella's journey intersects with that of the earlier timeline.
3. **2203**: Olive Llewellyn, a famous author living on a moon colony, tours Earth to promote her book, which contains a passage describing the same anomaly experienced by Edwin. Olive's story provides a meta-commentary on pandemics and isolation, reflecting Mandel's own experiences.
4. **2401**: Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective from a future moon colony, investigates these anomalies, leading him to travel through time. His discoveries tie together the various timelines and characters, revealing a deeper, underlying mystery.
The themes in this novel are:
- **Time and Memory**: The novel delves into the fluid nature of time and how memories shape our understanding of reality. Each character's experience with the anomaly highlights the interconnectedness of past, present, and future.
- **Isolation and Connection**: Mandel examines how individuals cope with isolation, whether due to geographical separation, societal structures, or personal loss. Despite physical distances, the characters' lives are intertwined, emphasizing the human need for connection.
- **Reality and Simulation**: The concept of reality is questioned through the recurring anomaly and the suggestion of a simulated universe. This theme invites readers to ponder the nature of their own existence.
An analysis of the characters:
- **Edwin St. John St. Andrew**: A young man seeking purpose after a life of privilege, Edwin's journey reflects the theme of displacement and the search for meaning.
- **Mirella Kessler**: Her grief and quest for answers symbolize the human desire to find coherence in chaos.
- **Olive Llewellyn**: As an author reflecting on her own work, Olive's character provides a meta-narrative on storytelling and its impact on reality.
- **Gaspery-Jacques Roberts**: His role as a time-traveling detective underscores the novel's exploration of fate and free will.
Mandel's prose is elegant and reflective, with a keen attention to detail that brings each timeline to life. Her ability to weave complex narratives with emotional depth makes the novel a compelling read. The non-linear structure challenges readers to piece together the story, enhancing its thematic richness.
“A life lived in a simulation is still a life.”
“It wasn’t her fault that the world she had grown up in had ceased to exist.”
"Sea of Tranquility" is a thought-provoking novel that combines literary and speculative fiction to explore profound questions about time, memory, and reality. Emily St. John Mandel's masterful storytelling and intricate character development make it a standout work that resonates with contemporary themes of isolation and connection. This novel is not only a fascinating narrative puzzle but also a poignant reflection on the human experience.
Flows slow but deep
This one didn’t capture me with its characters, and I wasn’t very into it for the first half of the book. But then it turns and redeems itself very well. Slow burn, but very interesting.