Alternative universes: Exit Party, by Emily St John Mandel, reviewed
From our UK edition
The premise of this novel is weird and delightful. At a party in the year 2031, with the American civil war over and the Republic of California declared, it’s time to pop the corks in Los Angeles. Our protagonist, Ari, is slightly wary: she is newly out of prison and declares: ‘When I think about parties I think about bombs.’ This is the least of her worries, as in the inebriation she meets ‘the same woman she had seen earlier, wearing a silver pleated dress, but she’d changed into casual clothes now, jean shorts and a T-shirt’. Moreover, some people are calling her Ibari – ‘My legal name... I’ve literally never used it. It’s just the name on my ID.’ At the same party, the host disappears, and not just to stock up on the drinks.
