The Glass Hotel book is actually a 2020 novel by Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel. It is Mandel’s fifth novel and the first since winning the Arthur C. Clarke Award in the year 2015. The story in the particular book follows the aftermath of a disturbing graffiti incident at a hotel on Vancouver Island and the collapse of the international Ponzi scheme.
Emily St. John Mandel’s deeply imagined, philosophically profound reckonings with life in an age of disaster would indeed be appropriate companions alongside a plastic cup of wine and a tray of reheated food. But they are equally welcome at home during anxious days of following the news cycle or insomniac nights of worrying about the future.
This novel weaves otherworldly elements throughout the storyline of a modern financial thriller. It is a striking book that’s every bit as powerful and timely. Mandel’s writing shines throughout the book. She’s not a showy writer, but an unerringly graceful one, and she treats her characters with compassion but not pity. The Glass Hotel is a masterpiece, just as good if not better than its predecessor. It’s a stunning look at how people react to disasters, both small and large, and the temptation that some have to give up when faced with tragedy.
According to the plot, Paul is a lonely student at the University of Toronto. At a nightclub, he gives some tablets to some people he is hoping to befriend and one of them dies shortly after. Paul flees to the apartment of his half-sister Vincent. Five years later, Paul and Vincent work at a hotel on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island in the fictional Caiette, which is based on the real hamlet Quatsino. Some graffiti is discovered written on a window in the lobby with an acid marker, saying, “Why don’t you swallow broken glass”. Paul is immediately suspected and soon fired. The graffiti would appear to be intended for Jonathan Alkaitis, a wealthy investor who owns the hotel. Vincent, who is working the bar, soon enters into a relationship with Alkaitis and moves into his house in Connecticut. Her life becomes one of extreme wealth and accommodating her partner.
Alkaitis is arrested and it is revealed that his investment success is a Ponzi scheme. His complicit staff react in different ways to their impending demise. One flees the country, another writes an elaborate confession. Alkaitis is sentenced to 170 years in prison, where he dreams of a “counter-life” in which he made different choices. He is often haunted by the people he defrauded. Vincent changes her identity and is happy working as a cook on a shipping freighter. She disappears from the ship in the midst of a storm. Her on-board boyfriend is suspected of killing her. Leon Prevant, who lost his life savings investing with Alkaitis is sent to help investigate.
Sources: Good Reads.