Under Story - September 2026 PREM1ER Edition

About the book

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE IMMORTALISTS COMES AN ENTHRALLING NEW NOVEL THAT ASKS: WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR MORE TIME WITH THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE?

'Like The Overstory meets Interstellar. It has blown my mind' Caro Claire Burke
'Rapturously beautiful. I was in awe' Kaliane Bradley
'An epic love story, wondrous, wildly ambitious' Ann Napolitano
'Utterly transporting, both breathtaking and profound' Clare Leslie Hall
'I read it in a fever dream. A vividly human story' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review
'Under Story is dazzling, it will change you' Emilia Hart
'My book of the decade' Holly Bourne
'A sci-fi love story full of intrigue and tenderness' Claire Fuller
'Heartbreaking and mind-bending, I couldn't put it down' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review
'Stunning and moving and ludicrously inventive' Bobby Palmer

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 can't outrun her past. When a strange light appears across the ice and draws a group of physicists to McMurdo, her former husband, Eli, won't be far behind.

Laurel is captivated by the Arc: its surreal glow; the way it seems almost alive. And though Eli is reluctant to test her wildest theory, Laurel is convinced that the Arc leads down a rabbit hole and into a world they can barely imagine. Can she persuade him to risk everything to fix the burden that hangs between them - to turn back the clock and live their story a second time?

And this time, live it differently.

Once read, never forgotten, Under Story is a genre-defying exploration of the promise of this life, what might lie beyond it, and how far we would go for more time with the people we love.