New sci-fi by Emily St. Jon Mandel, stunning poetry by Ocean Vuong, and more great books coming this April

Sea Of Tranquility by Emily St. Jon Mandel (April 5, Knopf)Right off the cusp of series adaptation, Emily St. Jon Mandel is back with another science fiction tale of “art, love, time, and plague.” Sea Of Tranquility spans five hundred years, beginning with a young man in 1912, who finds himself traveling across the Pacific after facing exile. Two-hundred years later, we meet a woman who lives on a beautiful moon colony, but travels the Earth in search of inspiration for her novels. Lastly, Mandel introduces us to Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective who’s tasked with investigating a potentially timeline shattering anomaly. St. Jon Mandel always seeks to find humanity in the struggle, and Sea Of Tranquility feels no different. The novel seeks to show us how we’re all connected, and how histories build upon themselves. [Gabrielle Sanchez]