The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells - Hardcover

Greer, Andrew Sean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062213784 ISBN 13: 9780062213785

Publisher: Ecco Press, 2013

Synopsis

From the critically acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller The Confessions of Max Tivoli comes The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, a rapturously romantic story of a woman who finds herself transported to the "other lives" she might have lived.

After the death of her beloved twin brother and the abandonment of her long-time lover, Greta Wells undergoes electroshock therapy. Over the course of the treatment, Greta finds herself repeatedly sent to 1918, 1941, and back to the present. Whisked from the gas-lit streets and horse-drawn carriages of the West Village to a martini-fueled lunch at the Oak Room, in these other worlds, Greta finds her brother alive and well--though fearfully masking his true personality. And her former lover is now her devoted husband...but will he be unfaithful to her in this life as well? Greta Wells is fascinated by her alter egos: in 1941, she is a devoted mother; in 1918, she is a bohemian adulteress.

In this spellbinding novel by Andrew Sean Greer, each reality has its own losses, its own rewards; each extracts a different price. Which life will she choose as she wrestles with the unpredictability of love and the consequences of even her most carefully considered choices?

About this title

Review:

"Andrew Sean Greer is one of the most talented writers around, feeling and funny, with a genuinely fine prose style and a sensibility to match."--Michael Chabon

"The premise of this novel isn't that a woman travels through time: it's that 'the impossible happens once to each of us'...What this wonderful novel teaches us is how magic works."--John Irving

"Andy Sean Greer writes with an intelligent joy that encompasses a truly kaleidoscopic vision, reminding me of the work of Peter Carey and David Mitchell. This novel is beautifully sewn together."--Colum McCann

"This novel is a guilty pleasure of sorts for anyone who has ever wondered, What if? We're taught not to dwell on paths not taken, but this book weaves a tale about the magical possibility of what could have been."--Real Simple

"No one tells the secrets of the human heart more bravely or eloquently than Andrew Sean Greer. He has been called our Proust, our Nabokov, but with this novel he transcends all comparison. This is a genius-stroke of a book. Read it and weep."--Julie Orringer, bestselling author of The Invisible Bridge

"Elegiac in tone, this tale of time travel, loss and comprimise is as precisely engineered as a Swiss watch. [Greer] manages the complexities of this temporal round robin with precision and panache...a generous novel..."--New York Times Book Review

"Greer is a deep thinker and a fine stylist...consider reading Greta Wells for sentences like these: 'It is almost impossible to capture true sadness; it is a deep-sea creature that can never be brought into view.'"--USA Today

"Andrew Sean Greer's The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells is a luminous inquiry into time itself, and Greta Wells, in her transit between three lives, is his most assured creation. What a lovely novel: stirring, inclusive, forgiving, and extraordinarily hopeful."--Jayne Anne Phillips

"Philosophically intriguing as well as gorgeously imagined and executed, this novel will catch fire with the same audience that propelled The Time Traveler's Wife to the top of the bestseller list."--Booklist

"Greer's imaginative treatment of love and relationships shines again in his third novel. VERDICT Fans of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife will delight in following the thought process of time traveling while maintaining a hold on a singular identity."--Library Journal (starred review)

Book Description:

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer. One Woman. Three Lives. Which will she choose?

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0062213784
• ISBN 13: 9780062213785
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304