Emily St. John Mandel

Not to be confused with Emily St. James.

Emily St. John Mandel
Mandel in 2017
Mandel in 2017
BornEmily St. John Fairbanks
1979 (age 44–45)
Merville, British Columbia, Canada[1]
OccupationAuthor
LanguageEnglish
Alma materSchool of Toronto Dance Theatre
Notable awardsArthur C. Clarke Award
Spouse
Kevin Mandel
​
(div. 2022)​
Children1
Website
www.emilymandel.com

Emily St. John Mandel (/seɪntˈdʒɒn mænˈdɛl/;[2][3] née Fairbanks;[4] born 1979) is a Canadian novelist and essayist.[5][6] She has written six novels, including Station Eleven (2014), The Glass Hotel (2020), and Sea of Tranquility (2022). Station Eleven, which has been translated into 33 languages,[7] has been adapted into a limited series on HBO Max.[8] The Glass Hotel was translated into twenty languages and was selected by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of 2020.[9][10] Sea of Tranquility was published in April 2022 and debuted at number three on The New York Times Best Seller list.[11]

Early life

Mandel was born in spring 1979[6] in Merville, British Columbia, Canada.[1][6] Her Canadian mother is a social worker and her American father is a plumber.[12][13][14] St. John, her grandmother's surname, is her middle name.[15][16]

When she was ten years old, she moved with her parents and four siblings to Denman Island, which is 20 miles (32 km) south of Merville near Union Bay.[10] She was home-schooled there until the age of fifteen, during which time she began keeping a daily diary.[1][6] She left high school when she was eighteen to study contemporary dance at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre.[1]

She worked with independent choreographers.[12] She was also administrative assistant at a Manhattan law firm and helped with grants at the Anderson Center for Cancer Research at Rockefeller University.[1][6]

Career

In 2002, Mandel began writing her first novel, Last Night in Montreal, while living in Montreal.[14] She is a staff writer for The Millions, an online magazine.[17][18] In 2012, she used the Goodreads database to write an article for The Millions, analyzing statistics relating to novels with titles in "The ___'s Daughter" pattern.[19] In 2016, she wrote a subsequent article, analyzing statistics relating to novels that included the word "girl" in the title. One of her findings was that the girl of the title is "significantly more likely to end up dead" if the author of the book is male.[20][21]

Novels

Mandel's first three novels are Last Night in Montreal (2009), The Singer's Gun (2009), and The Lola Quartet (2012). Unbridled Books published all three novels.[22][23][24][25][26]

Last Night in Montreal follows a young woman with a secret who cannot seem to settle in one city. When she is pursued by a private detective and a former lover, she is forced to come to terms with her own past and the secrets that haunt a childhood she cannot remember.[27]

The Singer's Gun tells the story of Anton Waker, who grew up surrounded by corruption, but has now decided to live a more honourable life. His life unravels when his cousin blackmails him into doing one last job. As a result, his forged Harvard diploma is revealed, and his secretary disappears. Anton must choose between his loyalty to his family and his desire to live life with integrity.[28]

The Lola Quartet is a literary noir novel that takes place in Florida following the 2008 economic collapse. Gavin, a recently fired journalist and former jazz musician, is contacted by his sister who believes she has discovered a daughter he never knew he had. Jobless, Gavin returns to his hometown and begins searching for his unknown child and the supposed mother—his high school girlfriend.[29]

Station Eleven

Mandel smiling, seated at a table with books
Mandel in 2017

Mandel's fourth novel, Station Eleven (2014), is a post-apocalyptic novel set in the near future in a world ravaged by the effects of a virus and follows a troupe of Shakespearean actors who travel from town to town around the Great Lakes region. It was nominated for the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction,[30] and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award[31] and the Toronto Book Award.[32] A film adaptation of the novel was developed by producer Scott Steindorff.[8] The resulting ten-episode limited mini-series on HBO Max, Station Eleven, premiered on December 16, 2021.[33]

Station Eleven was selected for the 2023 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by Michael Greyeyes.[34]

The Glass Hotel

Her fifth novel, a mystery thriller titled The Glass Hotel, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize in 2020[35] and was recommended by Barack Obama when he released a list of his favourite books from 2020.[7][9] In August 2019, NBCUniversal International Studios acquired the rights to The Glass Hotel for a television series adaptation, with producer Lark Productions.[36][18] Mandel is writing the screenplay.[18]

Sea of Tranquility

Mandel's sixth novel, Sea of Tranquility, was published in 2022.[37] It is a work of speculative fiction and explores questions pertaining to time travel and the simulation hypothesis. It debuted at number 3 on The New York Times Best Seller list for "Combined Print & E-Book Fiction," and number 2 for "Hardcover Fiction."[11] Barack Obama included the novel on his list of favourite books from 2022.[38]

Personal life

After studying dance, Mandel lived in Toronto and Montreal before relocating to New York City.[1][14][39][6] She married Kevin Mandel, a writer and executive recruiter,[6][40] with whom she has a daughter.[41] They divorced in 2022.[41][42]

As of 2022, Mandel lived in Brooklyn, New York.[6] As of 2024, she has a girlfriend, and the couple announced their engagement that year.[41][43]

Publications

Novels

  • Last Night in Montreal (2009). Unbridled Books. ISBN 978-1932961683
  • The Singer's Gun (2010). Unbridled Books. ISBN 978-1936071647
  • The Lola Quartet (2012). Unbridled Books. ISBN 978-1936071647
  • Station Eleven (2014). Knopf. ISBN 978-0385353304
  • The Glass Hotel (2020). Knopf. ISBN 978-0-525-52114-3
  • Sea of Tranquility (2022). Knopf. ISBN 978-1-529-08349-1[37]

Short stories

  • "The Chameleon Machine" in The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of the Book. Jeff Martin and C. Max Magee, editors (2011) ISBN 978-1593764043
  • "Drifter" in Venice Noir. Maxim Jakubowski, ed. Akashic (2012) ISBN 978-1617750731
  • "Drifter" in The Best American Mystery Stories 2013. Lisa Scottoline, editor. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2013) ISBN 0544319532
  • "Long Trains Leaving" in Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, Sari Botton, editor. Seal Press (2013) ISBN 978-1580054942
  • "The Violinist" in Imaginary Oklahoma. Jeff Martin, editor. This Land Press (2013) ISBN 978-1480036291
  • "Mr. Thursday" in Slate (March 16, 2017). reprinted in Out of the Ruins. Preston Grassmann, editor. Titan Books (2021) ISBN 978-1-78909-739-9

Essays

  • "Emilie" in The Millions (April 19, 2010)[44]
  • "Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" in The Millions (October 25, 2010)[45]
  • "On Bad Reviews" in The Millions (February 7, 2011)[46]
  • "The Second Life of Irmgard Keun" in The Millions (February 7, 2011)[47]
  • "Irène Némirovsky, Suite Française, and The Mirador" in The Millions (September 2, 2011)[48]
  • "The ___'s Daughter" in The Millions (March 28, 2012)[49]
  • "Eating Dirt: On Charlotte Gill and the Life of the Treeplanter" in The Millions (September 6, 2012)[50]
  • "Susanna Moore, Cheryl Strayed, and the Place Where the Writers Work" in The Millions (October 4, 2012)[51]
  • "Strange Long Dream: Justin Cronin's The Twelve" in The Millions (October 15, 2012)[52]
  • "Drinking at the End of the World: Lars Iver's Exodus" in The Millions (February 22, 2013)[53]
  • "I Await the Devil's Friend Request: On Social Media and Mary MacLane" in The Millions (March 29, 2013)[54]
  • "The Bulldozing Powers of Cheap" in The Millions (June 28, 2013)[55]
  • "Motherless Tacoma: On Eric Barnes's Something Pretty, Something Beautiful" in The Millions (July 11, 2013)[56]
  • "A Woman's Unraveling: On Suzanne Rindell's The Other Typist" in The Millions (July 31, 2013)
  • "The Asking is Both Graceful and Profound: On the Stories of Josephine Rowe" in The Millions (August 8, 2013)[57]
  • "On the Pleasures and Solitudes of Quiet Books" in The Millions (August 27, 2013)[58]
  • "A Closed World: On By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept" in The Millions (March 7, 2014)[59]
  • "You'll Probably Never Catch Ebola—So Why Is the Disease So Terrifying?" in The New Republic (August 12, 2014)[60]
  • "Susan Sontag, Essayist and So Much Else" in Humanities, 35:5 (September/October 2014)[61]
  • "The Land of Ice and Snow: On Lars Iyer's Wittgenstein Jr." in The Millions (November 24, 2014)[62]
  • "The Year of Numbered Rooms" in Humanities, 37:2 (Spring 2016)[63]
  • "The Gone Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on the Train" in FiveThirtyEight (October 2016)[64]
  • "A Year in Reading: Emily St. John Mandel" in The Millions (December 2, 2017)[65]
  • "Year in Reading: Emily St. John Mandel" in The Millions (December 23, 2018)[66]

Awards

References

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  2. ^ "Everything You Need to Know About Emily St John Mandel". Pan Macmillan. September 24, 2022. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  3. ^ "What I'm Reading: Emily St. John Mandel (author of The Glass Hotel)". Read It Forward. August 6, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  4. ^ Jurczyk, Eva (March 25, 2020). "The Man in the Empty Suit: Talking with Emily St. John Mandel". The Rumpus. Retrieved September 10, 2024. My maiden name is Fairbanks. I was Emily St. John Fairbanks. Mandel is my married name.
  5. ^ "Mandel, Emily St. John 1979– --" in Contemporary Authors, v. 301. Gale, 2010.
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  47. ^ "The Second Life of Irmgard Keun". July 22, 2011. Archived from the original on April 20, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  48. ^ "Irène Némirovsky, Suite Française, and the Mirador". September 2, 2011. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  49. ^ "The ___'s Daughter". March 28, 2012. Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  50. ^ "Eating Dirt: On Charlotte Gill and the Life of the Treeplanter". September 6, 2012. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
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  57. ^ "The Asking is Both Graceful and Profound: On the Stories of Josephine Rowe". The Millions. August 8, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
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  61. ^ "Susan Sontag, Essayist and So Much else". Archived from the original on March 23, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
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  63. ^ "The Year of Numbered Rooms". Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
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