Fates and Furies

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

From the award-winning, New York Times- bestselling author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia, one of the most anticipated books of the fall: an exhilarating novel about marriage, creativity, art, and perception.

Fates and Furies is 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.

"Lauren Groff is a writer of rare gifts, and Fates and Furies is an unabashedly ambitious novel that delivers — with comedy, tragedy, well-deployed erudition and unmistakable glimmers of brilliance throughout." Cover of The New York Times Book Review

"Lauren Groff rips at the seams of an outwardly perfect marriage in her enchanting novel Fates and Furies." Vanity Fair

"We can't help but be fascinated by the possibility of what goes on behind closed doors — especially if there's a glam, madly-in-love couple on the other side. Meet Mathilde and Lotto. Groff's novel unfolds in a he said/she said gutting drama that you won't be able to resist." Marie Claire

"Complex, sexy and achingly beautiful." Good Housekeeping

"[Characters] Lotto and Mathilde glow and hum with incredible vitality, and the story of their relationship is satisfyingly complex. But it's Groff's prose — dreamy but controlled, intuitive but fresh, and startling in its originality — that's worthy of its own study and praise." Bustle

"The plotting is exquisite, and the sentences hum; Groff writes with a pleasurable, bantering vividness. An intricate plot, perfect title, and a harrowing look at the tie that binds." Kirkus (starred review)

"Dark and dazzling....[Groff's prose] seduces the reader as much as the golden couple at the center of the compelling story....Taking a page from Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl-like view of marriage, Groff fashions a searing, multilayered portrait of a union that seems to thrive on its darkest secrets." Booklist (starred review)

"Like a classic tragedy, Groff's novel offers high drama, hubris, and epic love, complete with Greek chorus-like asides. A singular and compelling literary read, populated with extraordinary characters; highly recommended." Library Journal (starred review)

Lauren Groff is the New York Times-bestselling author of two novels, The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia, as well as the celebrated short-story collection Delicate Edible Birds. She graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Her work has appeared in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Atlantic, and in several of the annual The Best American Short Stories anthologies. Groff's fiction has won the Paul Bowles Prize for Fiction, the Medici Book Club Prize, the PEN/O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers and a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize.