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The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

A psychiatric treatment transports a woman to other lives she might have lived in this romantic story by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less.

"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

One of the New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books of 2013

After the death of her beloved twin brother, Felix, and the breakup with her longtime lover, Nathan, Greta Wells embarks on a radical psychiatric treatment to alleviate her suffocating depression. But the treatment has unexpected effects, and the Great of 1985 finds herself transported to remarkably similar lives in different eras—as a bohemian and adulteress in 1918, and a devoted wife and mother in 1941—fraught with familiar tensions and difficult choices.

Traveling through time, the modern Greta learns that each reality has its own losses and rewards, and that her alternate selves are unpredictable, driven by their own desires and needs. And as the final treatment looms, one of these other selves could change everything.

Magically atmospheric, achingly romantic, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells beautifully imagines "what if" and wondrously wrestles with the impossibility of what could be.

"A love letter to Greenwich Village, in three indelible eras, and to the intricacies of love itself. Absolutely gorgeous!" —Paula McLain

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

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 15, 2013
      In Greer’s time-traveling fourth novel (following The Story of a Marriage), the eponymous Greta skips between three different eras, and her life is intertwined with the same two characters (and other incarnations of herself) in each. Greta Wells, living in New York City in 1985, is devastated by her twin brother Felix’s death from AIDS and the end of her long-term relationship with Nathan. To treat her crippling depression, she pursues electroconvulsive therapy, which begins a cycle of magical time travel. In 1941, Felix is alive and Nathan is her husband; and in 1918, Nathan is away at war and Felix, though still homosexual, is deeply closeted. As the Greta of 1985 explores these timelines, the versions of herself from 1918 and 1941 also travel to each other’s eras. No timeline is perfect; each offers losses and compensations. Felix’s stories provide an especially moving exploration of the limited choices available to gay people throughout history. The Gretas have surprisingly little solidarity, intruding into each other’s lives without warning or permission. While Greer too often skimps on the period details that can give time travel stories a sense of reality, the novel’s central questions—how does experience change us, and which relationships are worth sacrificing for—work to bridge its chronological jumps. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit.

    • Library Journal

      February 1, 2013

      Like Greer's The Confessions of Max Tivoli, one of my favorites and a New York Times best seller, this novel plays smartly with time. In 1985, Greta Wells is so distraught by her twin brother's death and her breakup with a longtime lover that she seeks therapy. The unexpected effect: she finds herself living alternate lives as a bohemian adulteress in 1918 and a dedicated wife and mother in 1941. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2013

      Greer's (The Story of a Marriage; The Confessions of Max Tivoli) imaginative treatment of love and relationships shines again in his third novel. It is 1985 when Greta is faced with a debilitating depression after the death of her twin brother, Felix, and shortly thereafter the end of her marriage. She seeks electroconvulsive treatment, a succession of 25 procedures, for her condition. The doctor assures her it will not change her, only alleviate her depression. But with each treatment, a door is opened to a different life, either in 1918, 1941, or 1985. Although Greta keeps her feelings intact for her beloved brother, her former husband, Nathan, and her Aunt Ruth, the relationships change and mutate in each era she experiences. As her time travel escalates outsides the boundaries of her understanding and logic, Greta is faced with bracing herself for the unknown. 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. [See Prepub Alert, 1/6/13.]--Susan Carr, Edwardsville P.L., IL

      Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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