Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Sea of Tranquility

Emily St. John Mandel

Skimming time and space from early 1900s Canada to moon colonies in the far future, this is a brief book of vast scope yet intimate feeling, a swirl of a past, present and future punctuated by reality-shifting pandemics. While a mystery-narrative emerges, led by time-travelling investigator Gaspery, the overall meaning is open to your interpretation. For me, this read was like gazing into the night sky - a space for contemplation, awe and wonder.

Extract

If we were living in a simulation, how would we know it was a simulation? I took the trolley home from the university at three in the morning. In the warm light of the moving car, I closed my eyes and marvelled at the detail. The gentle vibration of the trolley on its cushion of air. The sounds - the barely perceptible whisper of movement, the soft conversations here and there in the car, the tinny notes of a game escaping from a device somewhere. We are living in a simulation, I told myself, testing the idea, but it still seemed improbable to me, because I could smell the bouquet of yellow roses that the woman sitting beside me held carefully in both hands.

Parallels
  • Light from Other Stars by Erika Swyler
  • Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
  • Primer - the film