Last Night in Montreal by Emily St John Mandel

Pan Macmillan

9781447280026

240pp

Imagine you’re a 7-year-old child and you are abducted by your father. Well, that’s what happens to Lilia. Lilia has been on the run her whole life, but when she comes across Eli, things start to change. She begins to question if life constantly moving and changing is really for her.

If you’re a fan of Station Eleven, then you’re probably going to be a fan of Emily St John Mandel’s other works. Her writing is haunting and ephemeral, taking you on a beautiful journey in just a few words. Last Night in Montreal is no different. Switching between Lilia’s early life and her life with Eli in New York and then on to Montreal where Eli tries to find her, the exquisite heartbreak of the situation unravels before you.

There is something so perfect about her writing. It’s sparse, but tells so much, with moments of what feels like fantasy (if you’ve read Station Eleven you’ll know what I mean) and yet feels entirely plausible. You are totally immersed in her world and stand by the side of the characters as they go through unimaginable trials. What I loved about this book is that each character is irrevocably flawed. Not just Lilia, whose flight through America and Canada causes so much pain, but Eli and Michaela and Christopher too. And yet we are helplessly drawn to them, these broken characters who skate around each other like shadows.

Lilia is fascinating, but the real hero of the story, in my opinion, is Michaela. Daughter of a private investigator, she is impossibly linked to Lilia throughout her life, and her story reflects Lilia’s faults back at her. She is the centre of the novel, more than Lilia and Eli, and she is the most fascinating of them all. A tightrope walker, a go-go dancer, a furious teen (and adult) abandoned by her parents, she is the most intriguing and magnetic of them all.

It’s hard to explain why Last Night in Montreal is so good. It’s short, just 240 pages, and addresses an inconceivable situation. The loss of a child through abduction must be a parent’s worst nightmare. And yet… and yet… we see it through Lilia’s eyes (despite her amnesia) and Michaela’s eyes (despite her fury) and Eli’s eyes (despite his obsession) and we come to understand the situation from an entirely different perspective. We come to sympathise with Lilia’s father, and distrust her mother. We come to romanticise the journey which Lilia and her father takes, and begin to understand the motives. It’s a strange book, not necessarily comfortable reading, but beautiful in its execution.

The finale is as dramatic as you can expect. I didn’t see it coming, and as a result, it hit me like a brick. On reflection, it is the only conclusion that this book could come to, but for a while you live in hope of another outcome.

I have a few more Emily St John Mandel books on my shelf, and I’m itching to read them. She has definitely become a favourite author of mine!