The Glass Hotel: A novel
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events—the exposure of a massive criminal enterprise and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.
“The perfect novel ... Freshly mysterious.” —The Washington Post
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: Why don’t you swallow broken glass. High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis's billion-dollar business is really nothing more than a game of smoke and mirrors. When his scheme collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan’s wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.
In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.
Look for Emily St. John Mandel’s bestselling new novel, Sea of Tranquility!
“The perfect novel ... Freshly mysterious.” —The Washington Post
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: Why don’t you swallow broken glass. High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis's billion-dollar business is really nothing more than a game of smoke and mirrors. When his scheme collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan’s wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.
In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.
Look for Emily St. John Mandel’s bestselling new novel, Sea of Tranquility!
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Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
301 pages
What’s it about?
This book follows two Canadian born half-siblings as they move through their lives. Paul struggles with addiction and Vincent finds herself caught up with a man that runs a Ponzi scheme. When the Ponzi scheme fails we see how different people, including the perpetrator, are affected.
What did it make me think about?
This book covers greed, privilege, addiction, and people living in the margins.
Should I read it?
I LOVED Station Eleven by the same author, and this book is an equally impressive display of writing. However, I found this book slightly dry, and easier to put down. I did enjoy the story, but I can't say any of the characters were that compelling. The character that I was the most interested in was Jonathan Alkaitis- the man that runs the Ponzi scheme. He ruins so many lives, including his own, yet always seems slightly mystified about how he got there. "He carried himself with the tedious confidence of all people with money, that breezy assumption that no serious harm could come to him. " So many of the characters are forced onto a different path after the Ponzi scheme is discovered. This book underscores how tenuous are lives are. Anyone's life can change in a minute- as we are seeing right now during the Coronavirus crisis. It also explores the notion that we can "know" and "not know" at the same time. Interesting thoughts- and an interesting book.
Quote-
"One of our signature flaws as a species; we will risk almost anything to avoid looking stupid."
"He could live without retirement savings. No one in this country actually starves to death. It's just one future slipping away and being replaced by another. "
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The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
301 pages
What’s it about?
This book follows two Canadian born half-siblings as they move through their lives. Paul struggles with addiction and Vincent finds herself caught up with a man that runs a Ponzi scheme. When the Ponzi scheme fails we see how different people, including the perpetrator, are affected.
What did it make me think about?
This book covers greed, privilege, addiction, and people living in the margins.
Should I read it?
I LOVED Station Eleven by the same author, and this book is an equally impressive display of writing. However, I found this book slightly dry, and easier to put down. I did enjoy the story, but I can't say any of the characters were that compelling. The character that I was the most interested in was Jonathan Alkaitis- the man that runs the Ponzi scheme. He ruins so many lives, including his own, yet always seems slightly mystified about how he got there. "He carried himself with the tedious confidence of all people with money, that breezy assumption that no serious harm could come to him. " So many of the characters are forced onto a different path after the Ponzi scheme is discovered. This book underscores how tenuous are lives are. Anyone's life can change in a minute- as we are seeing right now during the Coronavirus crisis. It also explores the notion that we can "know" and "not know" at the same time. Interesting thoughts- and an interesting book.
Quote-
"One of our signature flaws as a species; we will risk almost anything to avoid looking stupid."
"He could live without retirement savings. No one in this country actually starves to death. It's just one future slipping away and being replaced by another. "
If you liked this try-
How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia by Moshin Hamid
Driftless by David Rhodes
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
Recommended to everyone.
Slow paced, character driven story that's worth the read!
Reading summaries for this book had me expecting a ghost story or a re-telling of Bernie Madoff. It was neither although it contained elements of both. This is not a ghost story in the normal way and that was just one of the factors that had me finishing this book within two days. I highly recommend for book clubs or friends, so you can discuss after because there will be LOTS to discuss.
I saw this story being more about the many paths we chose in our life and the utter capriciousness of it all. The ghosts added to this theme and I was happily flipping pages, thinking they were manifestations of a character's guilt until the end when Vincent made me question my safe assumption. I loved how the characters, even the obviously flawed ones, were presented to us with empathy.
I felt another theme was how corruption exists in all of our lives and is either ignored or a matter of where you draw the line. Annika and Leon were the least corrupt for me but even Jonathan and Vincent (who were at the other end of the scale) were still sympathetic characters, to varying degrees. I enjoyed how the author made me question not only the characters but myself. This book will leave an impact.
Unusual novel
Through shifting time and shifting dimensions, we learn the story and fate of one of the great Ponzi schemes of the early 2000s. Very realistic and emotionally complex.
Through shifting time and shifting dimensions, we learn the story and fate of one of the great Ponzi schemes of the early 2000s. Very realistic and emotionally complex.
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