Why has a private detective been following Lilia Albert for most of her life? But no matter how I discovered it, or how old it is, I still found this book to be a very atmospheric mystery, and I’m glad I ran across it. It’s not a new release, originally published back in 2009, and is apparently this author’s debut novel. I can’t remember who recommended it or where I first noticed it.

John Mandel is a Vintage publication.Īgain, I have no memory of how this book crossed my path. Emily St John Mandel is a fantastic talent – no time to waste, I’ll be grabbing the other two novels she’s penned faster than a toupee in a hurricane! If you haven't then you have that joy to look forward to. If you’ve read her her brilliant and best selling Station Eleven, then her style will be somewhat familiar. It’s a tale brilliantly told by a writer I’m starting to think of as one of my very favourite story tellers. The mystery deepens and then the reveal starts to appear, foggy at first and then stunningly, shockingly crystal clear. The conversations are interesting, the characters complex and somewhat wacky and the setting ever changing. Why does she do this? Well, the answer is revealed in a fractured narrative that sometimes left me confused but ultimately knitted together into a brilliantly disturbing tale. She meets men, and sometimes women, striking up short term relationships before moving on again. She’s a traveller, that’s to say she doesn't stay anywhere for long. From here we get snapshots of Lilia’s life before Eli. We learn little of them before they part – Lilia sneaking off without warning.

Mandel's characters will resonate with you long after the final page is turned.įirst we meet a couple, Lilia and Eli.

John Mandel casts a powerful spell that captures the reader in a gritty, youthful world charged with an atmosphere of mystery, promise and foreboding where small revelations continuously change our understanding of the truth and lead to desperate consequences. Last Night in Montreal is a story of love, amnesia, compulsive travel, the depths and the limits of family bonds, and the nature of obsession. Then her latest lover follows her from New York to Montreal, determined to learn her secrets and make sure she s safe. Haunted by an inability to remember her early childhood, she moves restlessly from city to city, abandoning lovers along with way, possibly still followed by a private detective who has pursued her for years. In adulthood, she finds it impossible to stop. She spends her childhood and adolescence traveling constantly and changing identities. Lilia Albert has been leaving people behind for her entire life.

Last night in montreal emily mandel