This is not easy to see at first because the brief and mysterious introduction to Vincent is quickly eclipsed by the account of Paul’s life in Toronto. The stories of these and other characters are loosely interconnected. Guys who work for him obviously, but also clients like Leon, a shipping executive he recruited in the hotel where Vincent worked, and his old friend Olivia, who at 75 is left without an income. He’s built his business on a criminal plan and eventually the whole structure tumbles. (Mar.She doesn’t love Jonathan, who is 34 years older than she is, but she is the perfect partner, which he appreciates as much as she enjoys the lifestyle he provides - until he doesn’t. Agent: Katherine Fausset, Curtis Brown, Ltd. This ingenious, enthralling novel probes the tenuous yet unbreakable bonds between people and the lasting effects of momentary carelessness. Using flashbacks, flash-forwards, alternating points-of-view, and alternate realities, Mandel shows the siblings moving in and out of each other’s lives, different worlds, and versions of themselves, sometimes closer, sometimes further apart, like a double helix, never quite linking. The videos have helped Paul, despite a lifelong drug problem, tap into his creative gifts. Paul, meanwhile, has set Vincent’s old videos to music. Finished with Jonathan and the affluent lifestyle and ignored by her best friend, Vincent takes a job as assistant cook on a container ship.
When Jonathan’s Ponzi scheme collapses, he goes to prison, where his victims’ ghosts visit him.
Vincent relocates to the East Coast and what Mandel calls the kingdom of money to play trophy wife for investor Jonathan Alkaitis.
Paul leaves after writing on a window in acid marker a message even he doesn’t understand. Five years later, in the wilderness north of Vancouver, Vincent tends bar at a luxury hotel where Paul works as the night houseman. Vincent has just lost her mother and acquired her first video camera. In 1994, 18-year-old drug-using dropout Paul Smith visits his 13-year-old half-sister, Vincent, in Vancouver. Settings include British Columbia’s coastal wilderness, New York City’s fashionable neighborhoods and corporate headquarters, a container ship in international waters, and a South Carolina prison. Mandel’s wonderful novel (after Station Eleven) follows a brother and sister as they navigate heartache, loneliness, wealth, corruption, drugs, ghosts, and guilt.
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