Emily St. John Mandel discusses her new novel "Exit Party," which imagines life after the collapse of the United States, focusing on a character released from prison during civil unrest. Despite the bleak premise, Mandel emphasizes that her work contains hope and reflects her response to current events, such as ICE operations and military actions, making the speculative scenario seem less distant. In an interview, she explains her motivation for writing about societal collapse stems from observing how people behave in disasters, noting specific concerns arising during the early pandemic period under the Trump administration.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-16,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Emily St. John Mandel's new novel Exit Party, released this week, explores a dystopian scenario where the United States has collapsed following a civil war. Set in a post-collapse world, the story revolves around Ari Waker and her roommate as they attend a party celebrating the lifting of curfew, only to discover unsettling truths about their new reality when the host mysteriously disappears.
The author draws parallels between fiction and real-world events, noting that while writing Exit Party, ICE agents were aggressively operating in cities like Chicago and Minneapolis, and the US had launched a military attack on Iran. Additionally, the CDC reported 1,000 measles cases, marking a fourfold increase from previous years. These real-life occurrences made Mandel's speculative fiction feel more plausible than it might have during her writing process.
Mandel reflects on how these events highlight the division within the country, emphasizing that the book's theme of two coexisting yet vastly different cultures within the same geography resonates strongly with current social and political realities in America.
Written for “Emily St John Mandel Interview” on 2026-09-17,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Emily St. John Mandel is perhaps best known for her 2014 novel Station Eleven, which presciently depicted a devastating global pandemic.
asserted
which → know → pandemic
Her new novel, Exit Party, out this week, isn’t much sunnier: This one imagines the aftermath of the collapse of the United States as a nation, and both the banality and turmoil that might follow.
uncertain
that → imagine → nation
Exit Party centers around Ari Waker—a character Mandel first introduced in her 2010 novel The Singer’s Gun—who has just been released from prison as the United States settles into its first spring after civil war.
asserted
States → center → war
She and her roommate attend a party to celebrate the end of curfew, but something isn’t quite right.
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something → attend → curfew
The party’s host steps outside for some air, and is never seen again.
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host → step → air
As I read Exit Party earlier this year, ICE agents were taking over cities like Chicago and Minneapolis, scanning the faces of protesters for some unknown database.
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agents → read → database
The US and Israel had just launched a military assault against Iran.
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US → launch → Iran
The CDC confirmed 1,000 measles cases, four times the number from the same period last year.
asserted
CDC → confirm → period
Mandel’s speculation about the disintegration of the country didn’t seem as far-fetched as her pandemic might’ve seemed in 2014.
uncertain
pandemic → seem → 2014
Still, I was surprised she was writing about such a dark topic, when in a 2023 Reddit AMA she mentioned that she’d written Station Eleven before having a child, and that she might not have been able to do so after, because “imagining the world ending with my daughter in it is unbearable.”
uncertain
world → write → it
When we spoke earlier this summer, I asked how she was able to overcome that impulse.
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she → speak → impulse
Though she said that looking at these ideas “dead on is a little bit unbearable,” the “speculative cloak” helps.
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cloak → say → ideas
And ultimately, what she wants readers to know, is that this novel, like her others, is full of hope, too.
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novel → want → hope
Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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conversation → edit → clarity
There’s probably going to be a reaction to your new book, Exit Party, that’s like, “Oh no, the author who wrote a book about a pandemic years before Covid hit is now writing about the fall of the United States!
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Covid → go → States
What does she know?
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she → know → What
I know nothing.
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I → know → nothing
I’m not clairvoyant—I just read the news.
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I → ’m → news
There’s something incredibly uncomfortable about thinking about some of these scenarios that I’ve written about in Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel, and now Exit Party, but you may have to be willing to live with some discomfort to create interesting art.
uncertain
you → ’ → art
So I tried to lean into my fear and anxiety around the very dangerous path that the country is on.
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country → try → that
What led you to want to write about this?
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What → lead → this
I am drawn to writing about the aftermath of catastrophe.
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I → draw → catastrophe
There’s something very clarifying about how we respond to disasters as people.
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we → ’ → people
I’ve been thinking about this idea of the United States fracturing in a serious way since the early pandemic, when there was a real shortage of personal protective equipment and obviously a total vacuum of leadership in the first Trump administration.
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States → think → administration
There was this weird moment where Northeastern states banded together to buy PPE as a bloc.
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states → be → bloc
I remember looking at these states on a map, thinking, “Well, here are these contiguous states working together to advance their interests, kind of at odds with the surrounding country.
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states → remember → country
This kind of looks like a country.
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kind → look → country
This kind of looks like a fracturing.”
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kind → look → fracturing
This feeling of there almost being two countries superimposed on top of the same geography with totally different cultures and ideas and understanding of reality—it’s that idea that animated the whole writing of Exit Party and channeling my political anxieties into fiction.
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that → superimpose → fiction
Sometimes looking at something dead-on is a little bit unbearable, but putting it in this kind of speculative cloak makes it easier to consider more deeply.
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it → look → cloak
You talk about your anxieties around the news being channeled into Exit Party, and surveillance seems to be a big part of that.
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surveillance → talk → that
I think that we’ve surrendered a lot of our privacy, and we’ve done that very voluntarily.
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we → think → that
We’ve clicked on the videos; we’ve looked at the pictures.
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we → click → pictures
This dossier is being built around us.
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dossier → build → us
Another thing that scares me is the situation these days with ICE, and how it’s become normalized to have a secret police.
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it → scar → police
Try to imagine how shocking it would have been five years ago for there to be a police force that floods the streets in American cities with masks on their faces.
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that → try → faces
That’s not something that I think most of us would have anticipated for the United States or that we thought was possible in any kind of serious way, outside the conspiratorial fringes of the internet.
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we → ’ → internet
Early in Exit Party, some characters have a conversation about how boring living through catastrophe can be.
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living → have → catastrophe
There’s kind of a banality of catastrophe, which I remember from the 2008 financial collapse, where you’re checking the news every day and after a while, there’s this feeling of “Yep, world still ending, still feels terrible.”
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world → ’ → while
I remember that from Covid, where you go from hitting refresh on the mortality graphs to thinking, “Well, yeah, okay, it’s another absolutely god-awful moment in a whole sequence of them.”
asserted
it → remember → them
…and 14 more, not listed.
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