Brawler
Stories
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, PEOPLE, TIME, HARPER'S BAZAAR, OPRAH DAILY, AND VULTURE
“Groff is one of this country’s most successful and versatile literary figures.”—New York Times
“Required reading.”—Los Angeles Times
“A knockout.”—Minnesota Star Tribune
A stunning, fierce collection from a master of the short story and one of the most important writers of our time
Read alone, each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region -- from New England to Florida to California -- these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels.
“In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,“ one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can.
Precise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Lauren Groff has created a stunning collection of short stories united by their honest, unforgettable insight into the dynamics of family. The cornerstone of the book is “What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?”, a singular tale of a wealthy but wildly dysfunctional clan and the black sheep’s obsession with his former love. Elsewhere, we found ourselves suspended in the moment as eight other stories unfolded. In “The Wind,” a mother hopes that a school bus will help her and her children escape a world of domestic violence. In “Annunciation,” a recent college graduate navigates the dreamlike odyssey of housing, employment, and feeling responsible for those around her. Groff’s prose is so beautiful, it’s almost hypnotic. Just as strikingly, she remains unambiguously compassionate toward her characters, even at their most selfish and misguided moments. Stirring, impactful, and unexpectedly funny, this is the work of an author at their best.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Story Prize winner Groff (Florida) delivers a gorgeous collection about families transformed by desperate circumstances. In the spectacular opener, "The Wind," a mother and her three children flee from her abusive husband after her 12-year-old daughter takes a blow meant for her. On the road, with the husband in pursuit, the daughter takes drastic action to save the family. "To Sunland" follows Joanie, a young woman who moves her intellectually disabled older brother into a group home following the death of their mother. In the title entry, teen Sara excels on her school's diving team but has little control over her mother's increasingly dangerous disordered eating. In "What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?" a young man whose family has nurtured his sense of entitlement, whether by giving him a car despite falling short of his expected SAT score or buying his way into a top college, faces the limits of nepotism when his uncle and grandfather fire him from the family banking business because of his heavy drinking and poor performance. Throughout, Groff sketches her characters with scalpel-like precision (Sara's malnourished mother is "a skin bag with chalk in it, far too light to be human"). Each of these heartbreaking tales will linger in the reader's mind.
