Mandel’s 'Exit Party' Expands Dystopian Mandelverse

Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel, “Exit Party,” imagines a United States fractured by a 2031 coup, civil war, secession and competing political systems. The story follows Ari Waker, a character first introduced in “The Singer’s Gun,” as she navigates a post-prison life in Los Angeles while the narrative expands into an authoritarian parallel reality where she serves in a secret police force. Mandel said the book grew both from her long-standing interest in Ari and from concerns about political polarization, disinformation and the possibility of democratic breakdown. The novel combines crime fiction and science fiction, exploring identity, surveillance, social chaos and the blurred boundary between criminality and law enforcement. It also extends the interconnected literary universe linking Mandel’s earlier works, including “Station Eleven” and “Sea of Tranquility,” while several of her books are being developed for television.