Emily St. John Mandel

Early life Mandel was born in spring 1979 St. John, her grandmother's surname, is her middle name.

When she was ten years old, she moved with her parents and four siblings to Denman Island, which is south of Merville near Union Bay. In 2012, she used the Goodreads database to write an article for The Millions, analyzing statistics relating to novels with titles in "The ___'s Daughter" pattern. In 2016, she wrote a subsequent article, analyzing statistics relating to novels that included the word "girl" in the title. One of her findings was that the girl of the title is "significantly more likely to end up dead" if the author of the book is male.

Novels Mandel's first three novels are Last Night in Montreal (2009), The Singer's Gun (2009), and The Lola Quartet (2012). Unbridled Books published all three novels.

Last Night in Montreal follows a young woman with a secret who cannot seem to settle in one city. When she is pursued by a private detective and a former lover, she is forced to come to terms with her own past and the secrets that haunt a childhood she cannot remember.

The Singer's Gun tells the story of Anton Waker, who grew up surrounded by corruption, but has now decided to live a more honourable life. His life unravels when his cousin blackmails him into doing one last job. As a result, his forged Harvard diploma is revealed, and his secretary disappears. Anton must choose between his loyalty to his family and his desire to live life with integrity.

The Lola Quartet is a literary noir novel that takes place in Florida following the 2008 financial crisis. Gavin, a recently fired journalist and former jazz musician, is contacted by his sister who believes she has discovered a daughter he never knew he had. Jobless, Gavin returns to his hometown and begins searching for his unknown child and the supposed mother—his high school girlfriend.

Station Eleven

Mandel's fourth novel, Station Eleven (2014), is a post-apocalyptic novel set in the near future in a world ravaged by the effects of a virus and follows a troupe of Shakespearean actors who travel from town to town around the Great Lakes region. It was nominated for the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Toronto Book Award. A film adaptation of the novel was developed by producer Scott Steindorff.

Station Eleven was selected for the 2023 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by actor Michael Greyeyes. It was listed by The New York Times as one of the "100 Best Books of the 21st Century" in 2024.

The Glass Hotel Her fifth novel, a mystery thriller titled The Glass Hotel, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize in 2020 and was recommended by Barack Obama when he released a list of his favourite books from 2020. It is a work of speculative fiction and explores questions pertaining to time travel and the simulation hypothesis. It debuted at number 3 on The New York Times Best Seller list for "Combined Print & E-Book Fiction," and number 2 for "Hardcover Fiction."

Personal life After studying dance, Mandel lived in Toronto and Montreal before relocating to New York City. with whom she has a daughter, born in 2015. They divorced in 2022.

In 2025, Mandel married Laura Barisonzi, a photographer and director, at the Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. As of 2026, she lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Echo Park, Los Angeles.

Publications

Novels

Short stories

Essays

"Emilie" in The Millions (April 19, 2010) "Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" in The Millions (October 25, 2010) "On Bad Reviews" in The Millions (February 7, 2011) "The Second Life of Irmgard Keun" in The Millions (February 7, 2011) "Irène Némirovsky, Suite Française, and The Mirador" in The Millions (September 2, 2011) "The ___'s Daughter" in The Millions (March 28, 2012) "Susanna Moore, Cheryl Strayed, and the Place Where the Writers Work" in The Millions (October 4, 2012) "Strange Long Dream: Justin Cronin's The Twelve" in The Millions (October 15, 2012) "Drinking at the End of the World: Lars Iver's Exodus" in The Millions (February 22, 2013) "I Await the Devil's Friend Request: On Social Media and Mary MacLane" in The Millions (March 29, 2013) "The Bulldozing Powers of Cheap" in The Millions (June 28, 2013) "Motherless Tacoma: On Eric Barnes's Something Pretty, Something Beautiful" in The Millions (July 11, 2013) "A Woman's Unraveling: On Suzanne Rindell's The Other Typist" in The Millions (July 31, 2013) "The Asking is Both Graceful and Profound: On the Stories of Josephine Rowe" in The Millions (August 8, 2013) "On the Pleasures and Solitudes of Quiet Books" in The Millions (August 27, 2013) "A Closed World: On By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept" in The Millions (March 7, 2014) "You'll Probably Never Catch Ebola—So Why Is the Disease So Terrifying?" in The New Republic (August 12, 2014) "Susan Sontag, Essayist and So Much Else" in Humanities, 35:5 (September/October 2014) "The Land of Ice and Snow: On Lars Iyer's Wittgenstein Jr." in The Millions (November 24, 2014) "The Year of Numbered Rooms" in Humanities, 37:2 (Spring 2016) "The Gone Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on the Train" in FiveThirtyEight (October 2016) "A Year in Reading: Emily St. John Mandel" in The Millions (December 2, 2017) "Year in Reading: Emily St. John Mandel" in The Millions (December 23, 2018)

Awards and nominations

2014: Prix Mystère de la Critique, Best Foreign Novel for The Singer's Gun 2014: finalist, National Book Award for Station Eleven 2015: Arthur C. Clarke Award for Station Eleven 2015: Toronto Book Award for Station Eleven 2015: finalist, PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for Station Eleven 2015: longlisted, Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction for Station Eleven 2017: , Novel Category Outside Quebec for Station Eleven 2020: shortlisted for Scotiabank Giller Prize for ''The Glass Hotel