That “queasy sense of overexposure that he felt on the prairies” returns. Later, in British Columbia, he discovers a land eerily devoid of people. Fear crowds his reality and distorts his perceptions. On the train ride there, Edwin “can see from horizon to horizon” and “feels terribly overexposed.” Whatever lurks seems close to his isolated homestead despite the immense distances that surround him. After six listless months in Nova Scotia, Edwin, who is “capable of action but prone to inertia,” tags along with a more ambitious countryman to Saskatchewan.

In 1912, Edwin has been exiled to Canada for making improper statements about colonialism to his British parents. The first half of Sea of Tranquility moves forward in time through three stories - Edwin’s in 1912, Mirella’s in 2020, and Olive’s in 2203.

John Mandel instead means to pick up where another masterpiece left off? Like Sea of Tranquility, the real-life 1961 avant-garde French film “ Last Year at Marienbad” is focused on the meaning of reality, the flow of time, and the validity of memory. It follows, then, that Sea of Tranquility seeks to capture how people feel during pandemics, right? Fear, confusion, and longing distort the passage of time, especially for the character Olive, who is on a book tour to support her blockbuster novel Marienbad. Incomprehensible danger suffuses settings that should be beautiful.

John Mandel wrote and published Sea of Tranquility during a pandemic, so the novel must be about pandemics, right? Well, unseen, ubiquitous doom is its overall feeling.

Sea of tranquility book review