The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

I’ve now read all 5 of St. John Mandel’s books.  All excellent.

As usual, Lola jumps forward and backward in time.  No author does this more skillfully.

• Last Night in Montreal (2009)
• The Singer’s Gun (2010)
• The Lola Quartet (2012)
• Station Eleven (2014)
• The Glass Hotel (2020)

“Emily St. John Mandel nails it with The Lola Quartet.

She had me from page one, when Anna, a 17 year old with a new baby and $120,000 in cash which clearly does not belong to her goes on the run.

I loved this tale about what not to do after high school.

It’s the story of four flawed members of a high school jazz band after they graduate, lose contact and disperse to follow their dreams,dreams which one by one melt away as they each struggle and falter in a world where doing the right thing is never as clear as it sounds.

Each is connected to Anna’s colossally bad decision whether they realize it or not, and it eventually forces them back together ten years later, to the story’s dramatic climax. …”

–Kris Kleindienst, Left Bank Books, MO