The Glass Hotel
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Dylan Moore
About this listen
International Best Seller • One of the Best Books of the Year: The New Yorker • NPR • Time • The Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • And More!
“The perfect novel.... Freshly mysterious.” (The Washington Post)
From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, 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.
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 new novel, Sea of Tranquility, coming in April 2022!
©2020 Emily St. John Mandel (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Long-anticipated... At its heart, this is a ghost story in which every boundary is blurred, from the moral to the physical.... In luminous prose, Mandel shows how easy it is to become caught in a web of unintended consequences and how disastrous it can be when such fragile bonds shatter under pressure. A strange, subtle, and haunting novel." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
"Another tale of wanderers whose fates are interconnected...nail-biting tension...Mandel weaves an intricate spider web of a story.... A gorgeously rendered tragedy." (Booklist, starred review)
"Mandel’s wonderful novel (after Station Eleven) follows a brother and sister as they navigate heartache, loneliness, wealth, corruption, drugs, ghosts, and guilt.... This ingenious, enthralling novel probes the tenuous yet unbreakable bonds between people and the lasting effects of momentary carelessness." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
Featured Article: A Bittersweet Symphony: A Station Eleven Explainer
Station Eleven is one of the most successful and popular novels of the 21st century so far. Set in a future North America where a deadly flu wipes out 99% of the population, this post-apocalyptic saga focuses on several survivors as they struggle to find meaning and beauty again. Station Eleven is certainly a different listening experience today, in a pandemic-stricken world, than it was when it was first released, less than a decade ago.
Editor's Pick
Another literary home run for Emily St. John Mandel
"I seem to encounter two types of listeners: those who loved Station Eleven, and those who never listened to it. I happen to fall into the former category and rank Station Eleven amongst my top listens of all time. Needless to say, and possibly unfairly, The Glass Hotel had big shoes to fill. Those who loved Station Eleven will find a departure from the end-of-the-world setting but will be pleased that The Glass Hotel shares the gorgeous yet desolate atmosphere of its predecessor as St. John Mandel takes on a fictional Ponzi scheme and the financial crisis of 2008, a smaller scale end-of-the-world scenario for many of the book’s characters. They’ll revel in this latest offering for her three-dimensional characters and stunning settings, from lonely Vancouver islands to glittering cityscapes. And if you’re new to Emily St. John Mandel, I hope you too will fall in love."
—Catherine H., Audible Editor
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In the vein of John le Carré and Graham Greene, this contemporary international thriller follows Milo Weaver as he is drawn into a conspiracy that links riots in the Sudan, an assassin committing suicide, and an old friend who's been accused of selling secrets to the Chinese. Once the CIA and Homeland Security are after him, the only way for him to survive is to return, headfirst, into Tourism.
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A book not for dummies
- By Tim on 03-23-09
By: Olen Steinhauer
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56 Days
- By: Catherine Ryan Howard
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin and start dating the same week COVID-19 reaches Irish shores. When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests they move in together. Ciara sees a unique opportunity for a relationship to flourish without the scrutiny of family and friends. Oliver sees a chance to hide who - and what - he really is.
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A bit disappointing
- By SB on 08-18-21
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Under the Midnight Sun
- A Novel
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- Narrated by: David Shih
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In Osaka in 1973, the body of a murdered man is found in an abandoned building. Investigating the crime, Detective Sasagaki is unable to find the killer. Over the next 20 years, through the lens of a succession of characters, Higashino tells the story of two teens, Ryo and Yukiho, whose lives are most affected by the crime, and the obsessed detective, Sasagaki, who continues to investigate the murder, looking for the elusive truth.
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So many subplots and twists
- By Janani Vasudevan on 07-03-20
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Safe Houses
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West Berlin, 1979. Helen Abell oversees the CIA's network of safe houses, rare havens for field agents and case officers amidst the dangerous milieu of a city in the grips of the Cold War. Helen's world is upended when, during her routine inspection of an agency property, she overhears a meeting between two unfamiliar people speaking a coded language that hints at shadowy realities far beyond her comprehension. Before the day is out, she witnesses a second unauthorized encounter, one that will place her in the sight lines of the most ruthless and powerful man at the agency.
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Fiction from Truth
- By Sue MB on 11-10-18
By: Dan Fesperman
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Murder Ink
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- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
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Veronica Blackstone has been hired to write an end-of-life book for a woman whose wedding vows she completed only a year earlier. Saddened by the task and confused by the seemingly callous reactions of family members, Veronica sets forth to create the booklet the woman’s mother desires. But not everything is as it seems, and the more Veronica digs the more she comes to realize that maybe the young woman’s death wasn’t the accident her wealthy family keeps insisting it was.
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Easy
- By Susan on 11-01-23
By: Betty Hechtman
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Last Evenings on Earth
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The first short-story collection in English by the acclaimed Chilean author Roberto Bolano. Winner of a 2005 PEN Translation Fund Award. "The melancholy folklore of exile", as Roberto Bolano once put it, pervades these 14 haunting stories. Bolano's narrators are usually writers grappling with private (and generally unlucky) quests, who typically speak in the first person, as if giving a deposition, like witnesses to a crime.
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Solid Character based Stories
- By Michael on 06-06-24
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Rock Point
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Seven years after suffering an unspeakable loss, Finian Bracken is recently out of seminary and leaving Ireland to serve a small parish in the quaint but struggling fishing village of Rock Point, Maine. Here he meets FBI Agent Colin Donovan for the first time...and discovers the dangerous secrets he left back home in Ireland. Smugglers are using the Bracken family’s old whiskey distillery as cover for their illicit activities—and the violent group isn’t going down without a fight.
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The Last Refuge
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Sam Acquillo is at the end of the line: he's a middle-aged corporate dropout living in a ramshackle cottage in Southampton's North Sea. But then the old lady next door ends up floating dead in her bathtub, and it seems that Sam is the only one who wonders why.
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A hero who doesn't work and play well with others.
- By Cholmondeley on 04-04-13
By: Chris Knopf
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gah!
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An excellent listen.
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Everyone Anton Waker grew up with is corrupt. His parents dealt in stolen goods, and he was a successful purveyor of forged documents until he abandoned it all in his early twenties, determined to live a normal life, complete with career, apartment, and a fiancée who knows nothing of his criminal beginnings. He’s on the verge of finally getting married when Aria—his cousin and former partner in crime—blackmails him into helping her with one last job.
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What listeners say about The Glass Hotel
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sharon Chagolla
- 01-15-21
Underwhelmed
It was ok. By the time I got to the end of it, I wondered why there was so much extra information that never ended up mattering. It’s just a story where nothing much happens.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Brooke C.
- 05-24-20
wanted to love it, but was unsatisfied with story
I truly enjoyed station eleven by Mandel, and this narration was great (although some of the accents were just beyond the narrators
scope). the characters were vivid yet disconnected and I found it hard to follow the jumping timelines and multi character /country stories at times. the tragedies and moral failures mount in this book and there's no one to root for, just a massive sad story with interconnected people and fascinating portrayals of the economic evils of America
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- Peigi
- 05-29-20
Missing a Plot!
I waited for this book and bought it the first day it was released. Such a disappointment - I know it is hard for a writer to top or even compete with an earlier book that was popular. Unfortunately, this book did not even come close to "Station 11."
The first half is rambling through the lives of totally unlikable characters. My ears did not perk up at all until Jonathon Alquatis is in prison for 170 years, only because I wanted to find out who he killed to get that type of sentence.
Apparantly, this Canadian author believes that there is truly justice in the US for "white-collar" criminals. Sorry to disappoint - other than the period Wall Street was closed due to the Corona virus, Ponzi schemes and other non-existent "funds" that destroy hard working people's lives and retirement are an on-going regular occurrence in the US and even if the SEC discovers and arrests the perpetrator, 170 years in prison would never occur in the real world for anything short of mass murder and only then if the defendant is not wealthy. My point is Jonathan's trial and sentence would never happen - I know it is fiction, but not even close to reality.
The narrator's performance was wonderful. I did like the character of Vincent, at least her free spirit. I would hope that I could have the courage to move on to a job on a ship after being in "the world of money", other than suicide. She was a flawed human being but apparently she was the only one who had a conscience. Those characters that knowingly participated in the con were sad because they got caught & the characters who were victimized are sad because they lost their "rich life style". But nobody, except maybe Vincent, was truly sorry for what happened.
I just wish there could have been an interesting & relevant plot - a Ponzi scheme - old news!
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- Jeff Koeppen
- 08-22-20
Excellent follow-up to Station Eleven
It's been a few days since I finished The Glass Hotel and initially it felt to me like a slightly better than four-star book but I haven't stop thinking about it since, and it really left an impression on me so I'm bumping up the rating. I thought the ending was deeply poignant and I don't know how it could've been better.
The hotel referred to in the title is the fictional Hotel Caiette located on Vancouver Island, where the two main characters and half-siblings Vincent and Paul work for a spell. The word "glass" in the title refers to two bits of graffiti painted on glass, both of which play pivotal points in the plot; one painted by Vincent during her school days and one painted by Paul on one of the hotel's windows. Paul's motivation for doing this is a mystery and not explained until later in the novel.
Unlike the author's last book, this one isn't dystopian but one could argue it is a financial dystopian story because a Madoff-like ponzi scheme plays a central role in the novel. Furthermore, much of this book is set around the time of the financial crisis of 10-12 years ago so there is a lot of underlying economic gloom and doom. I think I felt connection to what was going on in the novel because of the fact that my job in banking was affected negatively and was sometimes difficult during this economic crisis.
The book's narrative jumps around in time and from character to character, although Vincent's story is fleshed out the most thoroughly. Paul plays a major role as well. Initially, I thought the novel started slow, and was going to focus on the drug addled and unmotivated Paul, but I was happy that most of the story was devoted to the more interesting Vincent. We are given glimpses, some long and some short, in to the lives of a number of the secondary characters, many of which are affected by the ponzi scheme. As the novel moves along, and as the ponzi scheme unravels the novel's mood gets more and more gloomy and woeful.
By the novel's end the interconnectedness of all the characters is understood and loose ends tied up, and all that's left is the revelation of the main mystery. While I thought St. John Mandel's Station Eleven was a better book, The Glass Hotel was a still a five-star read for me. I listened to this on Audible, and Dylan Moore's narration was fantastic.
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- Michal
- 04-24-20
Engrossing; awful narration
An engrossing binge-listen. The characters have no inner world, just inner thoughts, so it's not really nourishing, but is still an elegant visit to a specific universe. The narration is utterly painful with the narrator pronouncing the word "a" as "A", and "the" as "thee" before consonants in every third or forth sentence, including in dialog where the characters would not believably do so. So distracting.
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- Stephanie
- 01-02-21
Wonderful
I really enjoyed this book. Explores characters either directly or peripherally involved with a Ponzi scheme, It is well written and well narrated, just a wonderful book. I highly recommend.
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- Stacy Sinkeldam
- 08-16-20
too Introspective
There was a lot to keep track of and many stories within one. I found the introspective thoughts of the characters confusing and unnecessary. two mysteries sort of unsolved. feel like Paul could have a sequel
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- Cloud_12
- 04-06-22
great writing, not so great story
I kept asking myself what the point of this book was. mildly entertaining, beautifully written. wouldn't recommend as a "page turner".
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- LizaG
- 06-12-22
Meandering
The story was somewhat entertaining (though for the amount of story, there was a tedious amount of detail) and interwove a lot of characters along the way. I have to say I didn’t really get it though. What was the point? We really didn’t get to know any individual person, or feel satisfied in understanding their decisions.Also the narrator only had a few variations in the tone, and voices and often came across as smirky.
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- Dwight H
- 04-13-20
Uncertain Review
It was a suspenseful read but got confusing to follow along sometimes. The narrator did a great job with voicing different characters to make it easier to follow along. I was recommended this book though Likewise app so figured Id give it a go. Not my normal go to kind of book but cannot say I didn't enjoy it somewhat.
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2 people found this helpful