Chloe Benjamin – författare

The New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists returns with a breathtakingly ambitious and unforgettable love story of what it is to live and love in time, and the extraordinary power of second chances.

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 cannot outrun her past. When a strange illumination known as the Arc, a highly unusual visual phenomena that defies two-dimensional rendering, draws a group of physicists to McMurdo, Laurel watches in disbelief as her former husband Eli walks across the ice and back into her life.

Whether it is circumstance or fate that has pulled them back together, Laurel and Eli each sense a possibility about the Arc's existence: its glow; the way it seems almost alive. And while Eli is reluctant to test the wild theories circulating around the base, it is Laurel who is willing to risk everything to fix the burden that hangs between them; to turn back the clock and live their story a second time. But this time, to live it differently.

At once a masterfully intimate yet epic love story that illuminates our world as a balance of opposites 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.

From the author of the eagerly anticipated Under Story comes the reading-group classic that asks: if you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

''A captivating family saga'' The New York Times Book Review

''This literary family saga is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Donna Tartt'' People Magazine (Book of the Week)

''Once I started reading The Immortalists, I resented every moment I had to spend away from the book until I''d finished'' Stylist

''A compelling and utterly absorbing read with virtuoso storytelling on display'' Sunday Express

It''s 1969, and holed up in a grimy tenement building in New York''s Lower East Side is a travelling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the date they will die. The four Gold children, too young for what they''re about to hear, sneak out to learn their fortunes.

Such prophecies could be dismissed as trickery and nonsense, yet the Golds bury theirs deep. Over the years that follow they attempt to ignore, embrace, cheat and defy the ''knowledge'' given to them that day - but it will shape the course of their lives forever.

Readers love The Immortalists:

''I read this book over three days and will remember it for a lifetime'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

''This is a book that I never wanted to finish reading. I truly enjoyed each single word of it'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

''A book of epic proportions. . . mystical and hugely memorable . . . I can''t praise it highly enough. A must read!'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

''Deserves all the noise around it'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

''One of those books I wish I could un-read so I could read it all over again for the first time'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

''A perfect book club read'' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The bewitching first novel from the bestselling author of THE IMMORTALISTS''Benjamin is a gifted writer, a creator of quiet asides and haunting images'' Financial Times''Matches the subtle surrealism of a dream with the underpinnings of a thriller'' Emma Straub''You wonder if here is a writer who is truly capable of anything'' Daily MailSylvie and Gabe meet and fall in love at boarding school in Northern California when they are just teenagers. Their headmaster is the enigmatic and mysterious Dr Keller, a man obsessed with the idea that people''s waking stress and trauma can be cured in their dreams. The young couple can''t help but be drawn into his magnetic pull and slowly become involved in his research. Years later, Sylvie and Gabe are once again working on Dr Keller''s experiments and Sylvie slowly begins to realise there is more both to her employer and her lover than meets the eye, and that the line between dreams and reality has become dangerously blurred.