Brawler Stories

Lauren Groff

eBook - 2026

ONE OF PEOPLE'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2026A stunning, fierce collection from a master of the short story and one of the most important writers of our timeRead 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... more