Tomorrow & tomorrow
New Zealand Listener|September 3 - 9, 2022
Emily St. John Mandel was hailed as prophetic for her breakthrough novel about a pandemic. Her latest foray into the future has been shaped by that experience.
ELISABETH EASTHER
Tomorrow & tomorrow

Emily St. John Mandel is a Canadian author whose fourth novel, the bestseller Station Eleven, won the 2015 Arthur C Clarke Award. It has also been adapted for television to critical acclaim. A captivating work of speculative fiction, Station Eleven depicts a pandemic that wipes out 99% of humanity. With the outbreak of Covid-19, Mandel (St. John is her middle name) was held up as an ad hoc pandemic expert, a role she resisted when her fifth novel, The Glass Hotel, was released in March 2020. As the world confronted a genuine pandemic, many readers fixated on Station Eleven’s similarities to real life. That experience is, in part, the inspiration for Mandel’s latest book, Sea of Tranquility, a time-travel novel that touches on a writer’s experience of being on a book tour during the outbreak of a global plague. Mandel, 43, lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

You grew up in rural places, notably the remote Denman Island, off the coast of Vancouver Island. What motivated your parents to move there? My parents were hippies and there was a big “back to the land” movement in the 70s and 80s, which is why we moved there when I was 10. We were also homeschooled, and I’m the second of five children.

Did that Utopian back-to-nature lifestyle suit you? The places I grew up in were rural, but they weren’t as remote as they may seem from a distance. What I really reacted against, particularly on Denman Island, was how everybody knew you and you knew everybody else. Some people love that, but to me, as a teenager, it felt claustrophobic.

How did you cope, in such an insular environment?

This story is from the September 3 - 9, 2022 edition of New Zealand Listener.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the September 3 - 9, 2022 edition of New Zealand Listener.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM NEW ZEALAND LISTENERView All
The big dry
New Zealand Listener

The big dry

All we know is that here at Lush Places, our pasture and gardens are gasping. The pasture is the worry. The garden is a luxury but if you move to the country to buy a garden, the lack of rain is distressing.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024
Digital disruption or disaster?
New Zealand Listener

Digital disruption or disaster?

If the news media is left to sink or swim, who will hold the powerful to account?

time-read
2 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024
Fair's fair
New Zealand Listener

Fair's fair

Are we kidding ourselves that the world is a fair and just place?

time-read
2 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024
Fortify yourself
New Zealand Listener

Fortify yourself

Iodine is an essential mineral for our metabolism but opt for bread and milk rather than salt to get an adequate dose.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024
Flautist’s flight
New Zealand Listener

Flautist’s flight

A United Nations of styles mark Tessa Brinckman’s collection of flute pieces.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024
Characters with a back story
New Zealand Listener

Characters with a back story

A new local comedy drama set in a spinal unit is based on the lives of two of its writers, one of whom stars in the show.

time-read
3 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024
On the slopes of whakapapa
New Zealand Listener

On the slopes of whakapapa

Kids go bush in Taranaki in a family flick with some familiar touches.

time-read
3 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024
Southern belles
New Zealand Listener

Southern belles

Kaylee Bell embraces Nashville, while Amiria Grenell heads to Americana.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024
Flying colours
New Zealand Listener

Flying colours

Look Blue Go Purple, a group which stood out among the many in 1980s Dunedin, is being honoured at the Taite Music Prize. RUSSELL BROWN tracked down the op shop-raiding politest band in rock'n'roll”.

time-read
4 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024
Critters for life's jitters
New Zealand Listener

Critters for life's jitters

A talking fox offers solace to a struggling man in this moving story about the redemptive power of nature.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 30 - April 5, 2024