The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells: A Novel

Andrew Sean Greer

Jun 2013 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

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 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?

Ratings and reviews

I did not like this book. It was boring and just meandered around. I kept reading it, hoping something interesting would happen, but it didn't. Sure, it was well-written and the idea was good, but overall, it was very disappointing. Maybe I missed something, but there was nothing that sucked me in, nothing that really even made me think about it when I wasn't reading it, other than wondering when it would get better. It never did and I finished it just as bored as I was while reading it.

This book opens the mind to ideas that I had already thought about, and gave a great story as a way of explaining the theory

Started it Tuesday finished it Thursday. Could not put it down. Completely hooked me, wonderful writing and a great story. Awesome.

About the author

Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of The Story of a Marriage and The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was a Today book club selection and received a California Book Award. He lives in San Francisco.