Sea of Tranquility is about a lot of things. That said, you don’t have to have read The Glass Hotel to enjoy Sea of Tranquility, though it might help to be familiar with Mandel’s work first. To that end, can you say that Sea of Tranquility is a sequel to The Glass Hotel, or is it just merely a companion novel(la)? Hard to tell, but readers of Sea of Tranquility will find it fun to spot all the Easter eggs that link it to the previous novel. However, and I hope I’m not saying too much, the events of Sea of Tranquility take place in a slightly altered timeline: Vincent’s Ponzi-scheming husband no longer goes to jail, but Vincent herself dies in the same tragic way that she did in The Glass Hotel. Both tales are connected to each other as they both feature some of the same characters: Vincent and her half brother Paul. Both novels are gloriously good - though Sea of Tranquility seems a bit short and more novella-ish than anything. Since her breakout hit, Station Eleven, first graced bookstore shelves in 2014 (but was not her first novel), she has proven to be able to write consistent follow-up novels, The Glass Hotel being one of them, and her latest tome, Sea of Tranquility, being the other. John Mandel is probably the best writer Canada has to offer at the current moment.
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