If the US Collapses Soon, Don’t Blame Emily St. John Mandel
Author Emily St. John Mandel discusses her new novel, Exit Party, which explores dystopian futures involving civil war and extreme surveillance. The interview touches on the relevance of her fiction to current political polarization and the role of community in times of crisis.
Why it matters
It reflects the cultural anxiety surrounding modern political instability and the role of speculative fiction in processing real-world societal fears.
As Covid-19 tore across the planet, Mandel became something of a pandemic prophet for writing the hit 2014 novel, Station Eleven. Journalists and everyday Twitter users alike looked to her for guidance as they hunkered down at home, desperate for someone—anyone—to tell them what was happening, and what might come next. Now, Mandel is out with a new book, Exit Party, that documents the interwoven lives of people living in two different, near-future versions of the US: A violent, post-civil-war free-for-all, and a totalitarian state where surveillance runs roughshod over a paranoid populace. She started writing the book in 2022, when polarization and political extremism were already surging—but well before the era of Trump 2.0, widespread ICE raids, and tech-infused surveillance we’re living through today.
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