Emily St. John Mandel’s new dystopian novel, Exit Party, takes place in the near future and considers two outcomes of a national crisis. In one version, the United States has devolved through civil war into several independent states and regions run by militias. In the other, the nation has become an authoritarian surveillance state. By bending physics and our imaginations, the author creates a world where two realities and two versions of characters exist simultaneously.

I did not want to put this book down. It was a gift to become absorbed in the twists and turns of an alternate reality, even as I wondered if the characters I was rooting for were good or bad. Toward the end of the book, one character wonders if she has dedicated her life to the wrong thing. Indeed, the question of what is worth living for, and how we might retain the agency to do so, permeates the story. As we launch a new issue of Virtues & Vocations considering responsibility and agency, this novel felt like a fun (if somewhat dark) companion to the conversation.