GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
“[An] expansive speculative saga… Benjamin could have written a far shorter novel. Some may say that less is more. But “Under Story” isn’t meant to be a minimalist work.
Leaning away from her austere contemporaries, Benjamin delights in the details of love and the everyday world, the smell of Laurel’s family’s apple orchard, communal living, the discovery of letters, unexpected second chances. Like Laurel and Eli, Benjamin wants so much more from this life than what we’re offered — she wants to embrace the interconnectedness of nature and humanity. Ever-shifting and blooming with tremendous tenderness, Under Story expands our expectations of living.” —New York Times Book Review
“An ambitious and fantasy-inflected adventure story that unfolds in parallel universes.” —Wall Street Journal
“[An] elegant blend of realistic fiction and uncanny sci-fi. [Benjamin’s] third novel is a beguiling, unpredictable study in sorrow and an uplifting ode to nature’s regenerative genius…Smart and wonderfully strange, Benjamin’s novel is a paean to life’s impermanence and to its capacity for renewal.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“So thought-provoking, and twisty that you won’t want the book to end.” —Los Angeles Times
“an epic sci-fi love story” —NPR
“Part science epic and part sweeping love story, Chloe Benjamin’s latest novel is an ode to the natural world and humanity’s place within it… Under Story grapples with the unknown, ultimately delivering a powerful message on the precarious and precious nature of the universe and human life itself.” –Harper’s Bazaar
“Soulful sci-fi…[An] astounding, mind-bending story about the lengths we’ll go to for the people we love.” –Real Simple
“Lives converge, and so do timelines, at a remote Antarctic base in this sweeping novel about family, loss, love and time from the author of The Immortalists.” –Today.com
“Under Story is an astoundingly imaginative and immersive work of fiction that veers off any sort of traditional pathway and takes us all the way to a parallel universe… There is almost a hallucinogenic quality to Benjamin’s prose that is both mystical and reality based.” —Book and Film Globe
“Picking up the hardcover of Chloe Benjamin’s new speculative epic may appear daunting at first, all 516 pages of it, but that feeling will turn to an emotion of pure awe once you read it. That’s when you will realize that the magnitude of worlds and existence and meaning that she managed to contain in those pages, is actually an accomplishment in concision. The book is many, many things, all wound together beautifully in an intricate and comprehensive saga of love lost, of death, and of healing…. Benjamin takes on an enormous project of speculative majesty in these pages: a world so built and contained that it’s no surprise that it took her almost a decade to write. But that’s not the impressive part. The jaw-dropping, heart-stopping core of this novel is about grief, and about the unwavering march of time. About the constant, devastating nature of life itself, of allowing yourself to love, even when we all know how the story ends. I felt these lines from Mary Oliver reverberating in my head as I read this book that is, above all, an oceanic expanse of love and grief: To live in this world / you must be able / to do three things: / to love what is mortal; / to hold it / against your bones knowing / your own life depends on it; / and, when the time comes to let it / go, / to let it go.” —LitHub
“Chloe Benjamin’s third novel, Under Story, is a riveting story of grief, love, and science that spans time and universes in an utterly original (and mysterious) way…. A careful, wonderfully thorough researcher, Benjamin includes beautiful passages on topics as diverse as neutrino physics, apple orchard cultivation, extreme cold water diving, and Antarctic marine life. And she meaningfully entwines that information with characters who show Laurel the warmth of found family amidst grief and loss. Benjamin (The Immortalists; The Anatomy of Dreams) continues to explore a potent theme readers will recognize from her previous work, namely the concept of free will versus an ordained future (or past), and how one reckons with a lack of control in life and death. Under Story is a luminous exploration of what makes us human.” —Shelf Awareness
“Since The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin has shown a rare ability to blend intimate family drama with boldly imaginative ideas…Part love story, part speculative epic, and part meditation on grief, Under Story asks how far we would go for more time with the people we love.” –Book and Film Globe
“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 Books of 2026”
“Author Chloe Benjamin, as she did in The Immortalists, blends literary fiction with fantasy and science in this moving novel.” –Town & Country
“One of the fall’s most intriguing novels…author Chloe Benjamin delivers a book about hope, science, ecology, family, and consciousness itself.” –GoodReads
“Benjamin’s imaginative rendering of the antiuniverse offers truly unique ways of thinking about time, nature, progress, duty, and aging….Blending literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and scientific research, Benjamin has created a genre-bending novel that is deeply concerned with the tenuous, mysterious, and enduring symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. Ambitious, poignant, and deeply human.” –Kirkus
“Benjamin (The Immortalists) blends speculative fiction and romance in this sui generis story of an erstwhile couple who discover a parallel universe. Benjamin holds the reader’s attention with well-conceived depictions of the Duoverse, where people age in reverse from death to birth, but the heart of the story is in Laurel and Eli’s desperate attempt to mend their lives and recover their love. This captivates.” –Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“Benjamin’s immersive and atmospheric novel is a heartfelt and intellectually gripping missive to the planet, to loss, and to connection. Fans of Benjamin’s The Immortalists will be thrilled as she again delivers on all levels. Equally appropriate for fans of mycelium, odes to the magic of the Earth, and speculation on the myriad possibilities for humanity.” –Library Journal (Starred Review)
“In Chloe Benjamin’s exquisitely imagined and emotionally rich Under Story (Putnam, $32, 9780593545218), a woman moves to Antarctica in search of a fresh start and finds far more than she expected…What’s most remarkable about Under Story is how Benjamin (The Immortalists) balances speculative physics with a deeply relatable story of love and grief. For a book involving multiple dimensions and timelines, Under Story is incredibly grounded. Anyone who’s ever endured profound loss or felt stuck will recognize Laurel’s state of mind. Benjamin draws the depth of what Laurel and Eli are going through with aching precision, in prose that often reads like poetry, making this expansive literary sci-fi tale powerfully resonant.” –BookPage (Starred Review)
“Billed as a love letter to the planet, Benjamin’s book explores matters of science, ecology, family, and consciousness itself.” –GoodReads “Readers’ 60 Most Anticipated Fall Books”
“Ultimately this capacious, suspenseful, and deeply moving novel of scientific and emotional quests offers provocative perspectives on obsession, parenting, time, forgiveness, and love.” –Booklist
“Chloe Benjamin returns with Under Story — a sweeping literary novel that blends love, science, and mystery.” –BookBub
“Not only is this a thrilling sci-fi love story, but it’ll leave you thinking about all of life’s ‘what-ifs'” –Country Living, “The Most Anticipated New Books of Fall”
“Under Story explores a theory of the universe through the lens of one family, and it’s a beautiful triumph of love and lives well-lived. Its connections and overlays are stunningly executed, showcasing dual natures of existence that play off one another in perfect synchronicity. Laurel and Eli’s story is unforgettable, and will leave you thinking long after the last page.” –Gloss Book Club
“I inhaled Chloe Benjamin’s Under Story, a dazzling novel about two scientists who travel to a research base in Antarctica after a devastating loss. It was the best book I read this summer with breathtaking lines about love, time, grief, and family. I underlined the heck out of it. Also, you guys, it has literal sparkles (!) on the cover.” –Big Salad
“One of the beautiful things about science fiction is that not every story has to be aliens or high tech or even a full-on thriller to be beautiful, complex, and thought provoking and that’s why we’re so interested in Under Story by Chloe Benjamin….More parallel universe than time travel, Under Story tinkers with physics to create a story that is, at its heart, profoundly human….It’s a story we can’t wait to dive into and the idea of following Laurel and Eli on what is sure to be a huge, emotional journey is something we would love to see come to life off the page as well. There’s not nearly enough sci-fi love stories, after all.” –ComicBook.com
“Loss, love, and sacrifice are weighty topics, but in Under Story, Benjamin does an incredible job of weaving them together into a pager-turner.”–Science Magazine
“A page-turning read that will have readers curled up in their beds all fall long.” –Woman’s World
“…once I started I couldn’t stop turning the pages. This book is positively brain-melting. (Complimentary.) About mid-way through I found myself googling whether the author has a PhD in a scientific field. (She doesn’t.) Like, how did this come out of someone’s brain?! It’s truly a feat of book writing…I predict people are going to be talking about this one this month.” –Book Enthusiast (Substack)
“Under Story is one of those reads that I literally have not been able to stop thinking about since I finished it at the beginning of the month. Sci-fi isn’t usually one of my go-to genres, but after getting swept away in the speculative world Chloe Benjamin created, my eyes have been opened to all the genre possibilities. Equal parts science epic and love story…” –The EveryGirl Book Club (Substack)
“Chloe Benjamin is an astonishing writer who conjures an entire parallel universe to illuminate one family’s loss. Under Story is the most ingenious novel I’ve read in a long time, and yet its scenes depicting the ordinary joys and sorrows of parenthood, marriage, and friendship are perhaps most magical of all. If this speculative masterpiece has a flaw, it’s that at 500 pages it feels too short.”–Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
“A rapturously beautiful novel. I was in awe of Chloe Benjamin’s universe-straddling imagination, her profound writing on love and grief, and her telescopic vision that lets her zoom into the smallest chambers of the human heart and far out again into the laws of theoretical physics. I loved Under Story.”—Kaliane Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of The Ministry of Time
“A head-spinning novel, daringly imaginative. Even as she plays with physics and fantasy, Chloe Benjamin has much to say about the nature of friendship, family, mortality and love.”–Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March
“An absolute feat of storytelling, and a once in a lifetime novel. Under Story will stay with you long after you read the final, dazzling page.” –Rebecca Serle, New York Time bestselling author of In Five Years
“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, New York Times bestselling author of Weyward
“Under Story is a spectacular novel. It is utterly transporting, with an imaginative scope that feels both breathtaking and profound. I was blown away by it.” –Clare Leslie Hall, New York Times bestselling author of Broken Country
“A mind-bending, head-popping sci-fi love story full of intrigue and tenderness.” –Claire Fuller, author of Swimming Lessons
“At once intimate and sweeping, Chloe Benjamin’s new novel looks at the magic of science and the power of love, examines life’s spark from the smallest atoms to the furthest cosmos, and braids together two worlds with astonishing imagination. Beautifully crafted and tenderly felt, Under Story is a feat—for readers in search of a gripping exploration of the strange mystery of life, loss, and time.” –Aja Gabel, author of The Lightbreakers
