Staff Pick
In Lauren Groff's illuminating dissection of marriage, Fates and Furies, life, love, and self are bifurcated between the true and the illusion. Lotto and Mathilde spend 24 years together, often working together, yet hidden truths crowd this marriage, and what is unspoken can sometimes be more important than what is said. The first half of this novel is narrated by Lotto, and the second half by Mathilde. Groff has written one of the most exquisite character studies in modern literature with Mathilde. While Lotto is on the "normal" side: what you see is what you get; Mathilde, on the other hand, has an ocean roiling beneath her cool surface, and with good reason. Expertly done, Fates and Furies is genius. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A FINALIST FOR THE 2015 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NPR MORNING EDITION BOOK CLUB PICK
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, TIME, THE SEATTLE TIMES, MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE, SLATE, LIBRARY JOURNAL, KIRKUS, AND MANY MORE Lauren Groff is a writer of rare gifts, and
Fates and Furiesis an unabashedly ambitious novel that delivers with comedy, tragedy, well-deployed erudition and unmistakable glimmers of brilliance throughout.
TheNew York Times Book Review (cover review)
Elaborate, sensual...a writer whose books are too exotic and unusual to be missed."
The New York Times
Fates and Furies is a clear-the-ground triumph. Ron Charles,
The Washington Post From the award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author ofThe Monsters of TempletonandArcadia, one of the most anticipated books of the fall: an exhilarating novel about marriage, creativity, art, and perception.
Fates and Furiesis a literary masterpiece that defies expectation. A dazzling examination of a marriage, it is also a portrait of creative partnership written by one of the best writers of her generation.
Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.
At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed. With stunning revelations and multiple threads, and in prose that is vibrantly alive and original, Groff delivers a deeply satisfying novel about love, art, creativity, and power that is unlike anything that has come before it. Profound, surprising, propulsive, and emotionally riveting, it stirs both the mind and the heart.
From the Hardcover edition."