From the critically acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller The Confessions of Max Tivoli comes The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, a rapturously romantic story of a woman who finds herself transported to the “other lives” she might have lived.
After the death of her beloved twin brother and the abandonment of her long-time lover, Greta Wells undergoes electroshock therapy. Over the … undergoes electroshock therapy. Over the course of the treatment, Greta finds herself repeatedly sent to 1918, 1941, and back to the present. Whisked from the gas-lit streets and horse-drawn carriages of the West Village to a martini-fueled lunch at the Oak Room, in these other worlds, Greta finds her brother alive and well—though fearfully masking his true personality. And her former lover is now her devoted husband…but will he be unfaithful to her in this life as well? Greta Wells is fascinated by her alter egos: in 1941, she is a devoted mother; in 1918, she is a bohemian adulteress.
In this spellbinding novel by Andrew Sean Greer, each reality has its own losses, its own rewards; each extracts a different price. Which life will she choose as she wrestles with the unpredictability of love and the consequences of even her most carefully considered choices?
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I really loved the time travel aspect of this book.
If you like the time Travelers Wife- you will like this.
This is odd and eerie. Really enjoyable in a strange way.
I found myself skipping paragraphs then pages. The story was enticing but never took off.
Although an interesting premise, for me the story was confusing and lost due to the constant long- winded, rambling, disjointed, tangential, digressive, etc. (get the point?) musings of the main character. For those who find the premise appealing, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson is the book to read!
This wasn’t the average time travel book. Greta knows exactly what’s happening to her and has an aunt who believes her. She knows how she travels and when it will end. The tone of the book, sorrowful but hopeful, really pulled me in. Placing the same characters in different time periods lets the author explore the ideas of how much of our …