Lauren Groff (http://laurengroff.com/) is a young American novelist and short story writer. She has had stories published in the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Five Points, and Ploughshares, and the anthologies Best New American Voices 2008, and Best American Short Stories 2007, 2010 and 2014 editions. Fates and Furies (2015) starts with honeymoon sex on a cold New England beach, and ends with lonely old age in London decades later. Graduates Mathilde and Lancelot “Lotto” Satterwhite have married, aged 22, following a two-week love affair. What follows is the portrait of a marriage, seen from both sides: first his, then hers. The second part is a clever subversion of the reader’s expectations. There is enough betrayal, vengeance and inadvertent sex with family members for the book to read like one of the Greek tragedies it references throughout. Themes include art, self-delusion and self-perception. This is an intricately constructed study of marriage, families and fate. If you have been married, or are contemplating it, this is one for you. There’s certainly enough entertainment here to set your own life in context, and probably be grateful for it!
Enquire at your local library or consult http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fates-Furies-Lauren-Groff/dp/1785150146/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1448881457&sr=8-1 for full bibliographic detail.
400 pages in Windmill
First published 2015
ISBN 978-0099592532
Lauren Groff