Sea Of Tranquility

Emily St. John Mandel's latest novel takes place at four different points in time. In 1918, young Edwin St. Andrew has been exiled to Canada by his wealthy British family to make a new life. In 2020, Mirella Kessler is in Manhattan looking for Vincent Alkaitis, a character who went missing in St. John Mandel's previous novel The Glass Hotel. In 2203, author Olive Llewellyn has left her home in a moon colony for Earth to embark on a promotional tour for her current novel. Her previous book about a pandemic had made her famous. Gaspery-Jacques Roberts appears across all these timelines when, in 2401, he investigates an incident that ties the lives of all these characters together. As she has done in previous novels, the author pulls together seemingly unrelated stories in surprising ways. The reader is initially confused but towards the end there is an 'aha moment' where it all becomes clear. Sea of Tranquility is about pandemics, time travel and small actions having large effects.

(This is the fourth novel I have read by this author. I have two of her earlier works on my reading list for this year.)