California is a new republic in Exit Party, a dystopia set in 2031. What happens next?

California has declared itself a republic. The curfews are finally over. It’s 2031. After nearly two decades in prison, Ari Waker goes to a party with her roommate, Gloria. It begins as a beautiful evening: flowers, candlelight, everyone excited, questioning what it means to be a new country.

But something is wrong at this party. There are too many people. Some of the guests have doubles. When the party’s host, Kareem, disappears, it’s clear to Ari that this night is a turning point.

In the days following the party, Ari realises that her time in Los Angeles is over. She travels across the (no longer) United States, through fractured territories and burgeoning city states. She works variously as a private eye, and an arms dealer. But questions about that night follow her – all the way to Paris, and a surprising encounter decades later.

Review: Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel (Picador)

In a parallel universe, Ibari Waker, her doppelganger, has chosen a divergent path. She’s a detective within the Service, the secret police of the authoritarian “State”. But her own strange discoveries, and the disappearance of her friend Nico, call those choices into question.

Exit Party, Emily St John Mandel’s seventh novel, is “timely” in a way few can be. It presents divergent visions of our world and future – particularly of the US as a state at a crossroads.

The “A-Side” of Mandel’s novel shows us a failed state, descended into a kind of anarchy, while the “B-Side” presents an authoritarian regime that has “closed like a fist”. Both timelines are believable – and when we view them in relation to our contemporary reality, they are a thought exercise in what might happen next.

Terrifyingly timely dystopias

Dystopian fiction has a colourful history, particularly from the 20th century on. At their core, these stories respond to the present moment. They focus on an issue that exists within the time they are written, using it as a catalyst in the development of a story world.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) responded to discussions of women’s reproductive rights during the Reagan administration. 1984 (1949) was George Orwell’s response to a rise of authoritarianism in Europe. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953) critiqued the rise of television and advertising, and the perceived loss of reading culture.

All these books remain terrifyingly timely in their own right.

Mandel’s work pushes the envelope. Not only is she responding to the issues and anxieties of the present, as we look at a seemingly unstable America and our increasingly complex relationship with technology, but her dual timelines allow us to consider not just the possible worlds she has imagined, but our place within them.

How are we, as individuals, moulded by our environments? Do we resist, or are we complicit? Do we become agents of control, or chaos?

Ari/Ibari is an exceptional vehicle for this examination: she illustrates both the opportunities for divergence, and the parallels that exist in her character across both worlds. The characters of Nico, Gloria and Sameer give us similar glimpses, allowing us to consider how we might respond when we come face-to-face with this “other” version of ourselves, whose choices have taken them down a road that might counter our own.

Defying genre

Mandel’s books defy genre categorisation: they exist somewhere in the space between literary and speculative fiction. In novels like the award-winning Station 11 (2015), Sea of Tranquility (2022) and The Glass Hotel (2020), she addresses the scientific questions of her worlds with grace, without getting bogged down by the details of her alternate realities. This masterful handling allows her craft to shine through, from language and storytelling to the experiences of her characters.

In Exit Party, she leaves us with a series of breadcrumbs, small clues that connect it to her other works – like the appearance of the fictional painting Swan Dive by Lucas Alkaitis, who featured in The Glass Hotel. Mandel is a fan of this kind of intertextual play: in the afterword for Station 11, she acknowledges the influence of Justin Cronin’s The Passage trilogy. Her character Elizabeth discusses these books in one of Station 11’s later chapters.

These connections build a sense of intimacy and familiarity for the returning reader. But they also create an interesting thread that ties back into the world of the novel. If we exist in this kind of multiverse, where different timelines and versions of ourselves might co-exist, where are the places they might intersect? People, places, objects? Or might our strongest anchors be works of art?

For Mandel fans, Exit Party is a must read. For new readers, it’s a perfect entry point to her universe/s. And it’s an opportunity to engage with a book that does what all great ones do: spark questions and ideas. Exit Party also considers where we might go next – and how, if needed, we might correct our course.