This was the one Mandel published before Station Eleven when she was still with a small press. It's extremely her. Of her newer books, it probably has the most in common with The Glass Hotel, in her interest in exploring morality versus legality, in the jumbled timeline, and for the shipping company subplot. We follow a man who slid into being a corporate drone to get away from his family's criminal tendencies, but the escape ends up not being sustainable. This is not told in any kind of linear fashion, or with any clear cut answers about what the right choices might be (though clearly some are pretty dubious). I liked the humour, and the way that Mandel gently prods at her characters, and never lets them rest easily. Less gay than her more recent stuff.

Mandel has said that her next book will connect back to this one, and I'm really looking forward to finding out how. The surviving characters could go a lot of ways (and being Mandel, she doesn't need to use just the surviving characters).