RaveThe Spectator (UK)There are a few minor flecks on the surface. The English colonists in Canada – easy targets – are rather caricatured, and though future Chinese ascendency rings depressingly true, an apparently benevolent female Chinese president seems jarringly unlikely. But these moments don’t spoil the narrative pull. Mandel writes in cool, clear prose, and we urgently want to know the fate of these characters ... The book tour moments – the dread signs of an emergent virus, the pain of separation from family – beat with the pulse of experience. Mandel conjures a power in this shortish novel that might take a lesser writer many more pages to achieve ... This philosophical exploration is wedded to an entirely gripping third act. The puzzle falls into place perfectly, ending in an open, thoughtful way that’s entirely satisfying. This is a compulsive novel of ideas from a writer apparently brimming with them.
