by: Chloe Benjamin
Goodreads synopsis:
The New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists returns with an intimate yet epic love story—and a sweeping odyssey of scientific discovery. Under Story invites us to consider the promise of this life, what might lie beyond it, and how far we would go for more time with the people we love, cementing Chloe Benjamin’s place among our best, and most lasting, storytellers.
“We wake up to tomorrow, never yesterday.”
At the end of the world, biologist Laurel Salter is hiding from everything she’s ever known. For ten hours a day, six days per week, she works as a dishwasher at McMurdo Station, an isolated research base in Antarctica. She tells no one that before she arrived, she was a renowned young scientist with a promising career, a husband, and a family.
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?
A breathless page-turner and a love letter to our planet, Under Story grapples with the great questions of our time: human hubris, the precarity of the natural world, and the mysterious webs of consciousness that bind us. A modern epic of science and soul, of bravery and redemption, it offers a vision of the future that demands we reckon with what we owe to one another, and to the earth itself.
Helen says: 🤓🤓🤓1/2
This came highly recommended by Jordy’s Book Club (@jordys.book.club on instagram). He claims it will be the hot book for Fall. It was a little bit of a slow start for me and took a long time for it to get interesting…lots of scientific detail…sometime in the middle of the book something crazy happens and you won’t be able to put it down. This is the second most unique book I have read this year…the first being Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear…They were completely different in scope, but both offered refreshing new ideas. I liked it. It’s polarizing for sure!
Holly says: 🤓🤓1/2
Can I just say I didn’t understand? This book left me with more questions than answers. Maybe I am too old for this story? I enjoyed the first part, then I just became completely lost. Too much talk about mushrooms and isotopes. Just not for me.
