Sea of Tranquility — Emily St. John Mandel

Summary

In 1912, Edwin St. John St. Andrew, a young man from a noble English family, sparks a scandal by publicly opposing the British Raj. As a consequence, his father banishes him to Canada. Edwin meanders from Halifax to Victoria, British Columbia, but due to its stark resemblance to English high society, he leaves for Caiette, a remote settlement on Vancouver Island. In the forest there, Edwin has a mysterious experience, feeling as though he's within an expansive, dark space, accompanied by unrecognizable sounds, including a violin. A man named Roberts, who claims to be a priest, interrogates him about his experience but flees upon Edwin's growing suspicion.

Fast forward to 2020, Mirella Kessler, a friend of Vincent Alkaitis who vanished during the events of "The Glass Hotel," attempts to trace her by attending an art performance by Vincent's brother, Paul Smith. Here, Paul plays a video Vincent filmed during her childhood, in which she, like Edwin, is briefly transported from a forest to a large, dark space reminiscent of a train station, with a violin echoing in the background. Learning of Vincent's disappearance at sea leaves Mirella shattered. However, a man named Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, who inadvertently reveals advanced knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic, unnerves her with his questions about the video. Mirella recognizes him from a horrifying murder scene she witnessed in her Ohio childhood, yet he appears not to have aged.

In 2203, Olive Llewellyn, an acclaimed novelist from a Moon colony, is touring Earth, promoting her novel "Marienbad," which revolves around a fictitious influenza pandemic. In her busy schedule of media events and lectures, she misses the reports of actual viral outbreaks occurring worldwide. Gaspery-Jacques, who shares a name with a character in her novel, questions her during an interview about a passage in her book that describes a character experiencing a shift in reality similar to Edwin and Vincent.

Two centuries later, in 2401, Gaspery-Jacques, named after Olive's character, leads an ordinary life as a hotel detective in another Moon colony. His genius sister, Zoey, a physicist like their late mother, is investigating the peculiar phenomena experienced by Edwin, Vincent, and Olive. Zoey theorizes that these events could prove the simulation hypothesis, pointing to potential data corruption within the simulation. She discloses her secret involvement with the Time Institute, the sole agency authorized to investigate time travel. Intrigued by the prospects of an extraordinary life, Gaspery-Jacques decides to join the institute despite the warning about its harsh bureaucracy. After years of training, he travels back in time to interview all potential witnesses of the anomaly.

Upon learning of Olive's impending death in a global pandemic, Gaspery-Jacques breaks protocol to warn her, enabling her to escape her fate and reunite with her family. Zoey and Gaspery-Jacques continue their investigation, but eventually get arrested. Even after discovering that Edwin's fate—death by the Spanish flu—remains unchanged, Gaspery-Jacques shows no remorse for his actions. His punishment is to be stranded in 20th-century Ohio, where he is implicated in a murder that Mirella had witnessed, leading to a life sentence.

Years later, Zoey, now a member of a different organization with time-travel capabilities, rescues the now sixty-year-old Gaspery-Jacques from his prison sentence, giving him a new identity and life as Alan Sami. Alan realizes that the anomaly is caused by the convergence of his past and future selves at the spaceport. After learning to play the violin and settling in Oklahoma City, Alan, on the fateful day, observes reality distort and mend itself as Edwin, Vincent, Olive, and his past selves appear before him.