Staff Pick
The Glass Hotel is a haunting tale of inner demons and personal catastrophe. Fans of Station Eleven will not be disappointed, for the characters in this story are just as richly flawed and gorgeously detailed. An ethereal and dreamlike quality seeps into the pages, guiding readers through a plot that rewards them with a deeply satisfying ending. This is a contemporary ghost story unlike any other I've read. Recommended By Alex Y., Powells.com
A novel of the financial collapse but so much more. A wonderful, mysterious book where characters' actions ripple out, affecting others in unintended ways, and people are haunted by the memories of those long gone. Peopled by characters who long to become something else, but struggle with the aftermath of change. Fantastically written literary noir. Recommended By Bill L., Powells.com
Ambitious and inventive, with a circuitous plot that demands the reader's full attention and rewards it handsomely, The Glass Hotel is a dizzying, beautiful book. I wasn’t sure what to expect going in — Mandel won my blind allegiance with Station Eleven, so I jumped at the chance to read her latest, without much concern for the details — but in hindsight, I’m grateful for that blank slate. Watching this story unfold was a thrill. Recommended By Tove H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A New York Times "20 Books We're Watching For in 2020"
An Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Bustle, Buzzfeed, GoodReads, Houston Chronicle, Writer's Digest, Medium, Washington Independent Review of Books, The Millions, Boston Globe, USA Today, and Women's Day Most Anticipated Book
From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events-a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: "Why don't you swallow broken glass." High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients' accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan's wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.
In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.
Review
"Mandel's wonderful novel (after Station Eleven) follows a brother and sister as they navigate heartache, loneliness, wealth, corruption, drugs, ghosts, and guilt...This ingenious, enthralling novel probes the tenuous yet unbreakable bonds between people and the lasting effects of momentary carelessness." Publishers Weekly, (Starred Review)
Review
"Another tale of wanderers whose fates are interconnected...nail-biting tension... Mandel weaves an intricate spider web of a story....A gorgeously rendered tragedy." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"At its heart, this is a ghost story in which every boundary is blurred, from the moral to the physical....In luminous prose, Mandel shows how easy it is to become caught in a web of unintended consequences and how disastrous it can be when such fragile bonds shatter under pressure. A strange, subtle, and haunting novel." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
About the Author
Emily St. John Mandel’s four previous novels include Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and has been translated into thirty-two languages. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.