Emily St John Mandel: Exit Party
Celebrate Emily St John Mandel’s new novel, an unforgettable story of crimes committed and loves lost over space and time, in conversation with Irenosen Okojie.
From the bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility, Exit Party is a story of the broken boundaries between parallel worlds and a single party on a fateful night in 2031 that links two very different versions of reality.
Exit Party is an electrifying new novel about freedom and surveillance, art and survival, love and loss in a broken world.
Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian-British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novels, Curandera,Butterfly Fish, and short story collections, Speak Gigantular/ and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. Her collection of hybrid personal essays Quixotic Fissures is published by Dialogue Books. She is the director and founder of Black to the Future festival.
Need to know
Copies of Exit Party are available to purchase as an optional add-on for £16 (RRP £18.99) when you buy a ticket to the talk. The book must be collected on the night of the event, as we’re unable to distribute copies afterwards.
Times & tickets
Dates, times and prices
Dates & times
03 Oct 2026, 7.45pm
Run time
1 hour and 15 minutes (approx)
All timings are approximate and subject to change
Standard entry
from £17 + £4 booking fee
Ticket prices may be adjusted without notice to reflect demand.
Concessions
Learn more about concession discounts
Refunds and exchanges
Find out more about our refund and exchange policy
Become a Member
Members get free entry to the Hayward Gallery and the first chance to book our entire programme of events, including go-down-in-history gigs, concerts with world-class orchestras, and talks from cultural icons and political giants.
Join today from £60
For your visit
This event is held at the Purcell Room Southbank Centre
The Purcell Room is located in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.
Plan your visit
The Purcell Room is an auditorium located within our Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.