Emily St John Mandel's Exit Party imagines two Americas after civil war

Emily St John Mandel has built her seventh novel around two possible Americas.

Exit Party, by the Canadian author, was published on 15 September 2026, according to the publisher's listing. The Guardian published a review on 24 September 2026 framed as alternate visions of post-crisis America. A review is a critical assessment. It is separate from sales figures, prizes and bestseller lists.

The book arrives as a hardcover edition. Hardcover, the sturdy premium print format, usually appears before cheaper paperback editions. The hardcover runs to 320 pages.

Its ISBN is 9780593321461. An ISBN, the 13-digit number that identifies each book edition for shops and libraries, is listed on the publisher's page Penguin Random House. Shops, wholesalers and libraries use that number to order, track and shelve the correct edition.

The story opens in 2031. That date sits five years in the future from the review. Ari Waker has just been released from prison. She served an 18-year sentence for attempted murder by contract killing of her cousin Anton, meaning she was found to have paid another person to carry out the killing.

The America she re-enters has fractured. A second civil war has devastated lives, and the United States as such has ceased to exist. The newly inaugurated independent State of California is celebrating the end of violence and the lifting of curfews. A curfew is an order to stay indoors during set hours.

The novel alternates between two potential future Americas. In one strand, doubles of some guests appear at a gathering. Someone else disappears altogether, according to an earlier Guardian conversation The Guardian. That piece was published on 13 September 2026 under a headline beginning 'When half the electorate disagrees on basic...'.

For readers following Mandel's longer run, there are familiar threads. Exit Party is her seventh novel. A seventh novel marks a long backlist, the set of older titles that stays in print behind a new release. Her second novel, The Singer's Gun, was published in 2009.

Readers of The Glass Hotel may recognise Swan Dive. It is the painting that hangs in the lobby of the luxury retreat in that book. Such links do not change the new plot. They reward readers who have followed the earlier titles.

Her pandemic novel became a lockdown phenomenon and inspired a hit TV series. That history explains why a new Mandel release draws wide attention. It does not predict how this book will sell.