Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

 

The Sea of Tranquility was a beautiful and unique book that I couldn’t put down.  My husband, Ben, and I are currently watching Station Eleven, but Sea of Tranquility was my first novel by Emily St. John Mandel.  It takes place during four different time frames and involves time travel.  I loved it.

The novel starts with the younger son from an aristocratic family being shipped to Canada in 1912 because he has “radical” opinions that embarrass the family.  He has a strange experience in the woods on Vancouver Island.   In 2020, a concert is taking place where footage is displayed that was taped in the same woods in 1994 and a strange event occurred.  In 2203, Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour on Earth.  She is a resident of the second moon colony.  While at an airport, she has a moment where she hears music, sees trees, and has a strange experience.  Is this a glitch?   In 2401, Gaspery-Jacques Roberts is a security guard at a hotel on the first moon colony.  His sister and old friend work for the Time Institute.  He gets a job there and is soon an operative traveling through time to try to solve the question of these strange disturbances.  What are these glitches?

The writing of this novel was beautiful.  It started somewhat slow with different pieces of the story that seemed unrelated.  Then the pieces finally started to come together.  I was fascinated.  There were some deep thoughts about life and reality.  It is a short book and I read it quickly.

Favorite Quotes:

“Illness frightens us because it’s chaotic.  There’s an awful randomness about it.”

“I’ve been thinking a great deal about time and motion lately, about being a still point in a ceaseless rush.”

Overall, Sea of Tranquility is a book I can’t stop thinking about.  It’s a beautiful novel with an intriguing story.