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Sea of Tranquility

The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller from the Author of Station Eleven

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Sea of Tranquility

By: Emily St John Mandel
Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Dylan Moore, John Lee, Kirsten Potter
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About this listen

The instant Sunday Times bestseller, Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel investigates the idea of parallel worlds and possibilities, and plays with the very line along which time should run.

'So wise, so graceful, so rich' - Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
'Ingenious' - Guardian

Lives separated by time and space have collided, and an exiled Englishman, a writer trapped far from home, and a girl destined to die too young, have each glimpsed a world that is not their own. Travelling through the centuries, between colonies on the moon and an ever-changing Earth, together their lives will solve a mystery that will make you question everything you thought you knew to be true.

From the award-winning author of Station Eleven.

A Best Book of 2022 - Oprah Daily, Barack Obama, Glamour, LA Times
'Brilliant and fiercely original' - Observer
'One of her finest novels' - New York Times
'Transcendent' - Wall Street Journal

 Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Ghosts Horror Literary Fiction Science Fiction Time Travel Women's Fiction Scary Haunted Emotionally Gripping

Critic reviews

It is heaven to be immersed in the waters of Mandel's imagination, she is always able to see past the present moment to the futures it contains and the past that informed it. Her perspective is so wise, so graceful, so rich and - despite everything - comforting. I loved Sea of Tranquility (Naomi Alderman, Women's Prize-winning author of The Power)
A spiralling, transportive triumph of storytelling - sci-fi with soul (Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies)
An ambitious time-travelling panorama of pandemics and parallel worlds
Even more boldly imagined than Station Eleven. Exciting to read, relevant, and satisfying.
Readers of Mandel’s Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel will not be disappointed by her latest, a generous and elegant novel about art and family and time travel
Ingenious . . . Hugely ambitious in scope, yet also intimate and written with a graceful and beguiling fluency . . . It conveys the vertiginous sense of a reality that transcends a single existence and feels simultaneously poignant, celebratory and uncanny
A time travel epic: a soaring story of connections through the ages. Mandel has this knack for grounding science fiction in the here and now, something that fills her writing with profound and life-affirming humanity
An inventive, haunting, and tender time-travel story that underscores the importance and resilience of art
The four narrators who deliver Mandel’s newest novel create a mesmerizing listening experience full of time shifts. Kirsten Potter shines as an author on a book tour at the beginning of a 2200s pandemic; her increasingly worried observations hit close to home. Dylan Moore brings a perfect mix of malaise and inertia to her characterization of a young woman living in 2020 New York. John Lee effortlessly transports listeners from British Columbia in 1918 to the moon colonies of the twenty-fifth century. Arthur Morey’s beautiful, throaty narration of the final section, about a man from the moon colonies whose life is changed forever by a mysterious government job, is haunting and familiar. These interlocking storylines offer a poignant and surprising exploration of love, art, and the beauty of everyday life.
All stars
Most relevant
Just let it wash over you. Such joy in listening to this strength of prose from the pen of a poetess

The simple beauty of it

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Really enjoyed this. I like the way the different timelines come together and the decision to use different narrators for each works very well.

Believable time travel, great story

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Beautifully written, love the slow and gradual unspiralling of the story. When the ending came I had a sense of both "wow" and "of course", the perfect ending.

Wistful, sense of aloneness

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Great, thought provoking story.
All the voice acting was spot on too and it seemed like everyone was invested in sharing the story.
Overall a very enjoyable (and binged!) listen.
Highly recommended.

Fantastic!

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Loved the storytelling and performance of the readers. However the story falls short in focusing on less interesting parts of the story and not providing any satisfying answers to other parts.

Good ambition but leaves you wanting

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