Read an extract from Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel — SkimNews
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- "Exit Party" by Emily St. John Mandel is published by Picador and selected as the October read for the New Scientist Book Club.
- The novel is set in spring 2031, the first spring after a US coup d'état; several states seceded within a week and war broke out within a month.
- International peacekeeping troops withdrew from Los Angeles the same week jacaranda trees bloomed, marking the start of an uneasy aftermath.
- 48-year-old Ari, the protagonist, is released from prison after nearly two decades and finds Echo Park's sensory richness overwhelming.
- Gloria, Ari's roommate, is a refugee from Tennessee who fled fighting between rival militias; she sleeps in the bedroom while Ari sleeps in the living room behind a sheet stapled to the door frame.
- The extract ends with Ari inviting Gloria to a neighbor's party as the curfew lifts, though Gloria stays glued to her laptop reading the news.
Why it matters: This extract gives New Scientist's science-curious readership first access to Mandel's new near-future American collapse narrative, positioning the Picador release in front of a STEM-aligned subscriber base as the October book club selection and driving commission-eligible purchases through the club's affiliate links.
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