Parallel perspectives abound in the dystopian world of bestselling novelist Emily St. John Mandel’s latest foray into eerily familiar fiction, Exit Party. ALOUD is proud to open our 2026 fall season with the highly anticipated latest novel from Mandel, whose books have captivated audiences since Station Eleven.
Exit Party is a novel of dualities, of timelines, of a near-future whose mystery isn’t drawn from its differences to the present day but its similarities: a 2031 marked by civil war alongside blooming jacarandas, bomb-sniffing dogs en route to parties in Silver Lake.
In what promises to be one of her best, Mandel’s latest has already been lauded as a “glittering puzzle box” (Kirkus), “a jewel of a book” (LitHub), “a hymn to what falls when the center doesn’t hold” (Library Journal).
Join ALOUD as we explore this brave new world with her.
Featured Author and Moderator:
Emily St. John Mandel
Emily St. John Mandel is the author of six novels, most recently Sea of Tranquility, which has been translated into 25 languages and was selected by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of 2022. Her previous novels include The Glass Hotel, which was also on Obama’s list, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has been translated into 26 languages; and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award among other honors, has been translated into 36 languages, and aired as a limited series on HBO Max. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles.
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Rachel Khong
Rachel Khong is the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction. Real Americans, her second novel, was a New York Times bestseller. In 2018, Khong founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. With friends, she teaches creative writing as The Dream Side. She lives in Los Angeles.
