The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells

by Andrew Sean Greer (Author)

Synopsis

It is 1985, and Greta Wells wishes she lived in any time but this one: she has lost her brother to AIDS, her lover Nathan to another woman, and can not seem to go on alone. To ease her sadness, her doctor suggest an unusual procedure, one that opens doors of insight into the relationships in her life, her conflicting affections, and the limitations put on a woman's life. Throughout, Greta glimpses versions of war, history, herself, and the people she loves, and as the procedures come to an end, she realizes she must make a choice: one which will close every door but one, forever.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Edition: Main
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 02 Jan 2014

ISBN 10: 0571295398
ISBN 13: 9780571295395
Book Overview: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer. One Woman. Three Lives. Which will she choose?

Media Reviews
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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
. ..The magical conceit here is well earned and imagined rather than gimmicky, and Greer writes with an acute sensivity for the wonderment taht underpins the human experience. -- The Daily Beast
. ..elegant and wistful... -- Time Out New York
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
. ..emotionally rich...Greer is an artful, elegant writer...The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells is a deeply romantic book. --Miami Herald
Author Bio
Andrew Sean Greer is the author of the novels: The Story of a Marriage, The Confessions of Max Tivoli, and The Path of Minor Planets, as well as the story collection How It Was for Me. He lives in San Francisco, California.