California has declared itself a republic. The curfews are finally over. It’s 2031. After nearly two decades in prison, Ari Waker goes to a party with her roommate, Gloria. It begins as a beautiful evening: flowers, candlelight, everyone excited, questioning what it means to be a new country.

But something is wrong at this party. There are too many people. Some of the guests have doubles. When the party’s host, Kareem, disappears, it’s clear to Ari that this night is a turning point.

In the days following the party, Ari realises that her time in Los Angeles is over. She travels across the (no longer) United States, through fractured territories and burgeoning city states. She works variously as a private eye, and an arms dealer. But questions about that night follow her – all the way to Paris, and a surprising encounter decades later.

Review: Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel (Picador)

In a parallel universe, Ibari Waker, her doppelganger, has chosen a divergent path. She’s a detective within the Service, the secret police of the authoritarian “State”. But her own strange discoveries, and the disappearance of her friend Nico, call those choices into question.

Exit Party, Emily St John Mandel’s seventh novel, is........

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