Description

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE IMMORTALISTS COMES AN ENTHRALLING NEW NOVEL, PERFECT FOR FANS OF THE TIME TRAVELLER’S WIFE

NOW A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOKCLUB PICK

‘Like The Overstory meets Interstellar. It has blown my mind’ Caro Claire Burke

‘Ever-shifting and blooming with tremendous tenderness, Under Story expands our expectations of living’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘Rapturously beautiful. I was in awe’ Kaliane Bradley

‘Captivating. Echoes of The Time Traveller’s Wife’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING (Book of the Month)

‘An epic love story, wondrous, wildly ambitious’ Ann Napolitano

WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR MORE TIME WITH THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE?

At an isolated research station in Antarctica, biologist Laurel Salter washes dishes for a living ten hours a day, six days a week. She tells no one why she left her career, or why her marriage ended.

But even in this remote outpost, Laurel can’t outrun her past. When a strange light appears across the ice and draws a group of physicists to McMurdo, her former husband, Eli, won’t be far behind.

Laurel is captivated by the Arc: its surreal glow; the way it seems almost alive. And though Eli is reluctant to test her wildest theory, Laurel is convinced that the Arc leads down a rabbit hole and into a world they can barely imagine. Can she persuade him to risk everything to fix the burden that hangs between them – to turn back the clock and live their story a second time?

And this time, live it differently.

Once read, never forgotten, Under Story is a genre-defying exploration of the promise of this life, what might lie beyond it, and how far we would go for more time with the people we love.

‘Utterly transporting, both breathtaking and profound’ Clare Leslie Hall

‘I read it in a fever dream. A vividly human story’ Reader Review

‘I loved it so much’ Jennie Godfrey

‘My book of the decade’ Holly Bourne

‘I feel as though I’ve known the characters all my life’ Joanna Cannon

‘A sci-fi love story full of intrigue and tenderness’ Claire Fuller

‘Heartbreaking and mind-bending, I couldn’t put it down’ Reader Review

‘Stunning and moving and ludicrously inventive’ Bobby Palmer

Publisher Review

Under Story is phenomenal, and one of the best books I've read in years. Wondrous, wildly ambitious, an epic love story that I'm so grateful exists in the world * Ann Napolitano, New York Times Bestselling Author of Hello Beautiful * A fiendishly clever, utterly original novel that gets to the heart of what it means to be alive. Under Story is dazzling, it will change you * Emilia Hart, Sunday Times bestselling author of Weyward and The Sirens * A mind-bending, head-popping sci-fi love story full of intrigue and tenderness * Claire Fuller, Author of Our Endless Numbered Days and Hunger and Thirst * Count on Benjamin to ask the big questions-what makes a life worth living? What is the nature of time? Where do we belong?-and entertain us fully all the while. Cannot wait to read... * Lit Hub, Most Anticipated Reads 2026 * Under Story is a book that contains multitudes. Stunning and moving and ludicrously inventive, it's a remarkable feat of imagination. I've never read anything like it, and I won't soon forget it. * Bobby Palmer, author of Isaac and the Egg and Main Characters * The best book I have read in years, a brilliant speculative novel * Gillian McAllister, multi-million copy bestselling author of Wrong Place, Wrong Time *