One of the best books of 2022 was Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. And that made me want to read it and see if it was as good as people claimed it was. Keep reading for a brief summary and what we thought of the novel!
Sea of Tranquility Summary
Edwin 1912
In 1912, Edwin St. John St. Andrew has an impossible experience in a forest onVancouver Island. He sees a dark space and hears a violon and other sounds that he is unfamiliar with. After that, he encounters a man named Roberts who questions him about what he experienced. But Edwin becomes suspicious and the man flees.
Mirella 2020
The year is 2022 and Mirella Kessler is trying to locate her friend Vincent. She attends Vincent’s brother, Paul Smith’s audiovisual art performance. He plays a film that takes place in a dark forest and violins are being played in the background. Mirella wants to ask Paul about his sister but she isn’t the only one.
Olive 2023
It is 2203 and Olive Llewellyn is visiting Earth for her book tour. She grew up on the Moon colony and misses her family while on her trip. Her novel Marienbad is a bestseller and she visits various cities throughout the tour. During the final leg of her tour, she meets a stranger who asks about a specific scene that took place in her book that might have occurred in real life.
Gaspery-Jacques 2401
In the year 2401, Gaspery-Jacques is working as a hotel detective on a Moon colony. He finds the job boring and when his sister Zoey confides in him about her research. Gaspery-Jacques cannot stop thinking about it and decided to become a time traveler to solve the mystery of the data corruption. But changing the past is taboo and their punishment is being lost in time. Will Gaspery-Jacques solve the mystery or become lost in time?
Commentary
The novel is told in chronological order and the events unravel once you get to the end of the novel. What I loved about the book was that each story about the different characters could have been their own novels. Emily St. John Mandel is a skilled writer and her writing makes this book the perfect adventure!
The novel was well received and made in into Barack Obama’s annual summer reading list. He also named it as one of his two favorite books of the year. It was chosen by Amazon as one of their 20 Best Books of the Year for 2022. It also won the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Science Fiction 2022.
Conclusion
If you are unfamiliar with Emily St. John Mandel, then you are missing out. Her novel Station Eleven is a must read and one of the best modern dystopian novels released. This is her sixth novel and we can’t wait to see what she writes next!
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