September 28th, 2026, 7 pm
A Cappella Books: A conversation with Emily St. John Wendel
Hosted by A Cappella Books
The award-winning, bestselling author of “Station Eleven” and “Sea of Tranquility” returns with a breathtaking novel of doubles, shadow worlds, and fractured timelines as a man disappears from a glittering Los Angeles party, and a woman—a gunrunner, an art collector, an operative of the State—searches for answers.
A Cappella Books proudly presents an evening with Emily St. John Mandel to celebrate the launch of her long awaited new novel, “Exit Party.” The author will appear in conversation with Virginia Prescott, President of School of Humans Audio and former host of GPB's "On Second Thought."
Each ticket includes a signed first edition of “Exit Party.” Please note that tickets are non-refundable. If you cannot attend, your ticket still entitles you to a signed copy of the book, which A Cappella Books will hold for one month after the event. You may pick it up in-store or call to request shipping.
About the Book
Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party’s host, vanishes into thin air.
As Ari Waker unravels the mystery of this inexplicable night, Emily St. John Mandel unfurls a story that takes us from a future America splintered by civil war to the seaside cliffs of Greece where weapons dealers hide in an elegant resort, and from the domed city of Paris to a colony on the moon. An unforgettable literary feat, “Exit Party” is a novel about the price of safety, the perils of the surveillance state, a requiem for a world not unlike our own, and a breathtaking story of resilience in the face of cataclysmic change.
About the Author
Emily St. John Mandel is the author of six novels, most recently “Sea of Tranquility,” which has been translated into 25 languages and was selected by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of 2022. Her previous novels include “The Glass Hotel,” which was also on Obama’s list, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has been translated into 26 languages; and “Station Eleven,” which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award among other honors, has been translated into 36 languages, and aired as a limited series on HBO Max. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles.
About the Conversation Partner
Before being named President of School of Humans audio division, Virginia Prescott hosted GPB's "On Second Thought" from 2018-2021. In 2024, the School of Humans podcast "Unreformed" was nominated for a Peabody Award. Prescott has gathered an impressive collection of tote bags and awards over decades in public media. She earned her audio chops as producer and director for NPR’s "On Point" and "Here and Now" and on the Peabody Award-winning team behind "Jazz from Lincoln Center with Ed Bradley." She’s worked at stations from New Orleans to New York, in conflict zones from the Balkans to Sierra Leone and was awarded a Loeb Fellowship from Harvard.
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