Under Story cover art

Under Story

The dazzling new novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Immortalists

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Under Story

By: Chloe Benjamin
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About this listen

What if tomorrow was already written, but yesterday was yours to change?

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.©2026 Chloe Benjamin
Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic reviews

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
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
A mind-bending, head-popping sci-fi love story full of intrigue and tenderness
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...
Under Story is a book that contains multitudes. Stunning and moving and ludicrously inventive, it's a remarkable feat of imagination. I've never read anything like it, and I won't soon forget it.
The best book I have read in years, a brilliant speculative novel
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