“It’s shocking to wake up in one world and find yourself in another by nightfall, but the situation isn’t actually all that unusual. You wake up married, then your spouse dies over the course of the day; you wake in peacetime and by noon your country is at war; you wake in ignorance and by evening it’s clear that a pandemic is already here.”

Time, memory, and human connection ripple across centuries in Sea of Tranquility, a novel by Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel. Conversation Tree Press is honoured to present a letterpress-printed, signed, limited edition of this haunting and intricately woven novel of pandemics, temporal anomalies, and the fragile threads that connect us.

First published in 2022, Sea of Tranquility traverses continents and centuries—from a remote forest in 1912 British Columbia to a lunar colony in the 2400s—drawing seemingly disparate lives into a single, resonant narrative. At its heart is a mysterious anomaly in time, one that echoes through generations and offers a meditation on the nature of existence and the illusion of permanence.

Sea of Tranquility has been praised as by The Guardian as “hugely ambitious in scope, yet also intimate and written with a graceful and beguiling fluency,” and as “one of Mandel’s finest novels” by The New York Times.

Edition Details

Sea of Tranquility will be letterpress-printed by Nomad Letterpress and feature newly commissioned artwork. It will be limited to 676 copies in three states: 400 unnumbered copies of the Collector’s Edition; 250 copies of the Deluxe Edition, each hand-numbered #1-250; and 26 copies of the Lettered Edition, individually inscribed A–Z.

All copies will be signed by the author and artist, with all artwork included in all states.

The edition will feature:

• Printing on luxurious paper, upgraded on the Deluxe and Lettered states.
• Durable, Smyth-sewn bindings with a ribbon marker and head and tail bands.
• Premium binding materials, upgraded on the Deluxe and Lettered states.
• Handmade slipcases/enclosures included at no additional cost.
• Hand binding by Ludlow Bookbinders.
• All artwork included in all states.

Schedule

Sea of Tranquility is currently planned to be our fifth and final multi-state book release of 2025, being made available for pre-order in November. Multi-state books are published in more than one version, i.e. Collector’s Edition, Deluxe Edition and Lettered Editions. See the Schedule page for more information on these releases, our Short Stops line, and the other books we have planned for 2025 and 2026.

Artwork

Once again, we’ve commissioned an artist to illustrate their first book—just as we did with Jacob Dhein on Flowers for Algernon and Matt Murphy on Solaris. While we love collaborating with artists already familiar to collectors, we’re equally excited to introduce new voices to our illustrated books—offering something fresh and unexpected. We can’t wait to share more.

Typography

For the first time, the interior design of a Conversation Tree Press book is being fully entrusted to another designer—and not just anyone. I’m proud to be collaborating with fellow Canadian Jason Dewinetz, a fitting choice for a work by a Canadian author and someone whose work I’ve admired for some time.

Jason is a letterpress printer, type caster, and typographer from Vernon, BC. He is the proprietor of Greenboathouse Press, a current board member and past North American Chair of the Fine Press Book Association, and teaches publication design at Okanagan College. His design and production work for his own titles has brought in more than a dozen national book design awards, including multiple Alcuin Awards in the Limited Editions category.

If you’re in Vancouver on Friday April 25th, you can see his talk “Making New Metal Type at The Greenboathouse Press”, a part of the Alcuin lecture series. I’ll be there as well so feel free to pop by and say hello.

Jason has set text in Umbra and Janson. The widely spaced Umbra caps reflect the novel’s 500-year scope across time and space, while their three-dimensional form echoes its multi-dimensional themes.

Umbra chapter numbers and Janson text.

The digital Janson used for the main text is understated enough for extended reading, yet carries just enough character to match the more playful and sometimes prickly aspects of the novel. Its 17th-century proportions contrast with the geometric structure of Umbra—used nearby for chapter numbers—offering both historical and structural counterpoint.

Letterpress Printing by Nomad Letterpress

We’ll be collaborating once again with Pat Randle and Ellen Bills at Nomad Letterpress in Gloucestershire, England, who will be letterpress printing our limited edition of Sea of Tranquility. They have a long history of printing Matrix magazine, a book arts periodical, for Whittington Press; a number of Conversation Tree Press books; and their own editions.

Hand Binding by Ludlow Bookbinders

Ludlow Bookbinders, located in Shropshire, England have been keeping the craft of English bookbinding alive for generations. They’ve hand bound a number of Conversation Tree Press editions, and we’re looking forward to collaborating with them on Sea of Tranquility.

Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel is the author of six novels, most recently Sea of Tranquility, which has been translated into 25 languages and was selected by President Barack Obama as one of his favourite books of 2022. Her previous novels include The Glass Hotel, which was also on Obama’s list, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has been translated into 26 languages; and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award among other honours, has been translated into 36 languages, and aired as a limited series on HBO Max. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles.