Review: Sea of Tranquility

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an Inception level conundrum!

-Emily St John Mandel writes a novel about a pandemic
-Writes new novel about a Ponzi scheme
-Pandemic hits
-Pandemic novel returns to popularity
-ESJM writes new novel about:
● Pandemics
● Characters from Ponzi scheme book
● An author who wrote a novel about a pandemic
● Which becomes more popular as a pandemic hits
● Time travel

And of course it's brilliant.

Honestly, the AUDACITY.

This is my third read from this author and I am in awe of the way she captivates me so completely. The stories never even feel that big or complicated but there is a beauty in the way they are woven and I always find myself mulling over things a lot more than usual.

Obviously, a lot of this hits home quite hard, because everyone in the world now understands what it's like to live during a pandemic. So there's a lot here that allows for reflection and some interesting diverting pathways from the basic chaos of it. I really enjoyed the way it was written - it doesn't overwhelm too much, doesn't dwell on the hardships, and provides the interesting time travel angle to distract.

Characters from other stories once again appear here, and it's a clever way to have you reading her other novels. I loved revisiting people I already knew, and it makes me want to go back and re-read those other novels in case I missed anything!

The concept of the story is really clever and the language is beautiful as always. If you've been impressed by her previous work, this one shouldn't treat you any differently.

Highly recommend.

With thanks to Macmillan for a copy

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