The Glass Hotel

3
 
Leon Prevant left the lobby at four-thirty a.m., climbed the stairs to his room, and crept into the bed, where his wife was sleeping. Marie didn t wake up. He d purposefully drunk one whiskey too many with the thought that this might make it possible to fall asleep, but it was as if the graffiti had opened a crack in the night, through which all his fears flooded in. If pressed he might have admitted to Marie that he was worried about money, but worried wasn t strong enough. Leon was afraid.

A colleague had told him this place was extraordinary, so he d booked an extremely expensive room as an anniversary surprise for his wife. His colleague was right, he d decided immediately. There were fishing and kayaking expeditions, guided hikes into wilderness, live music in the lobby, spectacular food, a wooded path that opened into a forest glade with an outdoor bar and lanterns hung from trees, a heated pool overlooking the tranquil waters of the sound.

It s heavenly, Marie said on their first night.

I m inclined to agree.

He d sprung for a room with a hot tub on the terrace, and that first night they were out there for at least an hour, sipping champagne with a cool breeze in their faces, the sun setting over the water in a postcard kind of way. He kissed her and tried to convince himself to relax. But relaxation was difficult, because a week after he d booked this extravagant room and told his wife about it, he d begun to hear rumors of a pending merger.

Leon had survived two mergers and a reorganization, but when he heard the first whispers of this latest restructuring, he was struck by a certainty so strong that it felt like true knowledge: he was going to lose his job. He was fifty-eight years old. He was senior enough to be expensive, and close enough to retirement to be let go without weighing too heavily on anyone s conscience. There was no part of his job that couldn t be performed by younger executives who made less money than

EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL's five previous novels include The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives in New York City.

A SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE FINALIST ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORKER NPR TIME   THE WASHINGTON POST ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY FORTUNE  GLAMOUR   ELLE  THE AV CLUB    REAL SIMPLE   LITHUB   PARADE   THE BBC   THRILLIST  BOOKPAGE   ELECTRIC LITERATURE  GOOD HOUSEKEEPING  BUSTLE   THE ECONOMIST   INSIDER  HUFFPOST   NEW YORK POST   THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

Unerringly graceful. . . . A striking book that s every bit as powerful and timely as its predecessor. . . . A masterpiece. NPR

Flawlessly constructed. The Boston Globe

Heartbreakingly resonant. San Francisco Chronicle

Lyrical, hypnotic. The Wall Street Journal

A careful, damning study of the forms of disaster humanity brings down on itself. Vulture

A beguiling tale about skewed morals, reckless lives and necessary means of escape. The Economist

A wondrously entertaining novel. Slate

A master in her prime . . . a marvel of intricacy from beginning to end. Entertainment Weekly

Mandel s gift is to weave realism out of extremity. She plants her flag where the ordinary and the astonishing meet. . . . She is our bard of waking up in the wrong time line. The New Yorker

Richly satisfying. . . . Deeply imagined, philosophically profound. The Atlantic