Andrew Sean Greer

“Greer’s considerable gifts as a storyteller ascend to the heights of masters like Marilynne Robinson and William Trevor.” — New York Times

From the bestselling author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli comes a love story full of secrets and astonishments.

“We think we know the ones we love.” So Pearlie Cook begins her indirect and devastating exploration of the mystery in the heart of every relationship, how we can ever truly know another person.

It is 1953 and Pearlie, a dutiful housewife, finds herself living in the Sunset district of San Francisco, caring not only for her husband’s fragile health but also for her son who is afflicted with polio. Then, one Saturday morning, a stranger appears on her doorstep and everything changes. All the certainties by which Pearlie has lived are thrown into doubt. Does she know her husband at all? And what does the stranger want in return for his offer of $100,000?

“Wondrously unsettling…Greer’s new novel is equally praiseworthy…A timeless story of conflicting loyalties.” — New York Times Book Review

“What can be seen plainly on every page of this slim, lovely novel is Greer’s prodigious talent.” — Miami Herald

“It’s too good to put down and yet each passage is also too good to leave behind…a perfect mix of what we want from literature.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

For six months, young Pearlie Cook struggles to understand the world around her, most especially her husband, Holland. Pearlie’s story is a meditation not only on love but also on the effects of war—with one war just over and another in Korea coming to a close. In a climate of fear and repression—political, sexual, and racial—THE STORY OF A MARRIAGE portrays three people trapped by the confines of their era, and the desperate measures they are prepared to take to escape them.

Lyrical and surprising, THE STORY OF A MARRIAGE looks back at a period we tend to misremember as one of innocence and simplicity. Andrew Sean Greer’s novel is a narrative tour de force that confirms him as “one of the most talented writers around” (Michael Chabon).

“Thoughtful, complex and exquisitely written.” — Carolyn See, Washington Post

“A haunting book of breathtaking beauty and restraint.” — Dave Eggers

“This is an exquisite story with shattering realizations about love.” — Amy Tan

“Andrew Sean Greer is back at it again, cleverly telling tales with his elegant sleight-of-hand.” — Los Angeles Times

“The Story of Marriage conveys, with great sensitivity, the sting of coming to ’see our lives as a fiction we have written and believed.’” — Evan Hughes, Barnes & Noble Review

“This is the slim yet deep novel that Don Delillo has been struggling for ten years to write.” — Washington City Paper

“From the beginning of this inspired, lyrical novel, the reader is pulled along by the attentive voice of Pearlie…Mr. Greer’s considerable gifts as a storyteller ascend to the heights of masters like Marilynne Robinson and William Trevor. In the hands of a lesser writer this narrative might have stumbled into a literary derivation of Annie Proulx’s now famous short story ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ But instead Mr. Greer creates a moving story that is all his own via an intimate view of Pearlie’s world, which has spun off its axis….Greer seamlessly choreographs an intricate narrative that speaks authentically to the longings and desires of his characters. All the while he never strays from the convincing and steady voice of Pearlie. In a way she serves as the reader’s Virgil as she guides you through the turbulent circles of the early ’50s, when both her life and the world are indelibly altered.” — New York Times

“Wondrously unsettling…. Andrew Sean Greer’s much praised previous novel, “The Confessions of Max Tivoli,” was an eerie “memoir” of someone born with the appearance of an old, wrinkled man who then ages backward, looking ever younger as he matures inwardly. John Updike found the book “enchanting, in the perfumed, dandified style of disenchantment brought to grandeur by Proust and Nabokov.” Greer’s new novel is equally praiseworthy, but the influence it evokes is less that of Proust or Nabokov than of Edgar Allan Poe. “The Story of a Marriage” is pervaded by a brooding, secretive air..Greer’s rich prose is filled with Poe-like symbols as well as sudden, terrifying i.lluminations and semi-surreal encounters…A timeless story of conflicting loyalties, “The Story of a Marriage” has roots in the fiction of Poe’s era, but, fittingly enough, its plot is firmly anchored in the vividly described America of the early 1950s—a seemingly serene era whose submerged social, racial and political tensions would soon create their own disruptions and upheavals.” — New York Times Book Review

“A mesmerizing tale, where you’ll want to charge forward to dig out the secrets in these people’s lives while also wanting to drag your heels and revel in the beautiful writing of this hugely talented writer.” — The Oregonian

“Exquisite…Greer has an intrepid imagination, an uncanny ability to bring the past to rumbling life and a surprising mastery of tension. The Story of a Marriage unfolds in the shadow of one war and the defining memories of another, a domestic drama as suspenseful as anymystery. It’s a finely structured whodunnit about the confusion inherent in matters of the heart…What can be seen plainly on every page of this slim, lovely novel is Greer’s prodigious talent.” — Miami Herald

“The book’s concerns include the nature of wartime heroism: Is it more courageous to go off and fight because the authorities tell you to, or is it braver to refrain, even if that’s not the popular thing to do?…”The Story of a Marriage” looks at these questions from the vantage points of both World War II and Vietnam, and the answers as well as the suppositions are fascinating…This is a plot that deepens as surprises explode unexpectedly and terrifyingly. “The Story of a Marriage” is more than worth the reader’s attention. It’s thoughtful, complex and exquisitely written.” — Carolyn See, Washington Post

“”WE THINK we know the ones we love,” begins Andrew Sean Greer’s bewitching third novel, “The Story of a Marriage,” a book whose linguistic prowess and raw storytelling power is almost disruptive to the reader. It’s too good to put down and yet each passage is also too good to leave behind…He near-brilliantly juxtaposes the nuances of love, sexual awakening and the sometimes suffocating sacrifices marriage demands against broader cultural observations about political turmoil, the physical and emotional effects of war, sexual repression and racism….His book is a perfect mix of what we seek from literature — captivating storytelling; a complex, finely tuned structure; stunning language; and astute observations about both the mundane intricacies of everyday relationships and society as a whole.” — Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times

“The Story of a Marriage is firmly rooted in its period, but the author also infuses the novel with a deep understanding about the fallibility of memory and perception, themes that make it seem timeless. Like most people, these characters have blind spots, and Greer portrays them with stunning focus.” — Time Out NY

“a slim work of genuine originality whose uniqueness rests in large part on information I would rather not share…the novel provides more than its share of lovely writing: “The driver struck a match and we were briefly bathed in that warm light before he touched it, gently, to his cigarette and then, when that was lit, thermometer-shook the match to darkness, leaving only a smoky question mark.” More crucially, Greer deftly portrays characters whose true selves are hidden beneath opaque facades, and creates a tale of disorienting and almost painful moral vertigo. The Story of Marriage conveys, with great sensitivity, the sting of coming to “see our lives as a fiction we have written and believed.”" — Evan Hughes, Barnes & Noble Review

“The cleverest aspect of “The Story of a Marriage” is the way Greer uses the little dramas of private individuals to enact and embody the abstract political and social concerns of the country at large…a story that is thematically rich and has its own inherent poetry.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“Greer has packed a tremendous amount into less than 200 pages. The story has a languorous, unhurried feel, and yet it contains many surprises. These are not always the shocking twists found so often in fiction but rather resemble the smaller jolts of real life, the moments in which we learn something new about those we love. The Story of a Marriage is a beautiful, understated novel that celebrates the heroes of private battles.” — London Observer

“It’s hard not to gush about American author Andrew Sean Greer’s new novel. For once, the publicity superlatives are true. The Story of a Marriage is a wonderful, exquisitely written book of the kind that keeps the reader up late at night to find out what happens next….Apart from sounding like an effusive sycophant, however, the trouble with writing about The Story of a Marriage is that its plot is full of twists and delayed revelations…truly touching, thought-provoking novel.” — Financial Times

“Greer has packed a tremendous amount into less than 200 pages. The story has a languorous, unhurried feel, and yet it contains many surprises. These are not always the shocking twists found so often in fiction but rather resemble the smaller jolts of real life, the moments in which we learn something new about those we love. The Story of a Marriage is a beautiful, understated novel that celebrates the heroes of private battles. It is peopled with those who have opted out - draft dodgers, conscientious objectors, and people on the margins of society who believe they are fighting for enough already, without taking on their nation’s conflicts. Like them, Pearlie’s war is never-ending, and it’s one that she wages alone.” The Guardian

“Greer is a gifted writer bent on showing that, between the upheaval of World War II and the activism of the 1960s, the political and social issues stirred up in those decades didn’t disappear. They were just put out of view while the country took a breath. The Story of a Marriage” is a neat little package about one couple that was forced to face them.” — The Seattle Times

“The Story of a Marriage is a carefully crafted novel, reminiscent of poetry, with each word beautifully strung on a necklace of pearlescent prose….Andrew Sean Greer has crafted an inspired novel from a set of ingredients that novelists have been using forever: a setting in times of uncertainty and social change, a betrayal, a loss of innocence, a love story. But instead of a cliche, The Story of a Marriage feels magical and elegant. Since Greer’s first collection of stories, How It Was for Me, published eight years ago, his skill with the written word has only matured and grown. And this, his fourth book, is one for the ages.” — Powells.com

“A wondrously inventive writer…Here Greer has constructed a world of silences and fogs, where he feints and shadows, revealing characters one shift of light at a time. So it’s hard to tell more of what Drumer’s visit does without revealing too much too soon. Better to drift quietly through this mesmerizing tale, where you’ll want to charge forward to dig out the secrets in these people’s lives while also wanting to drag your heels and revel in the beautiful writing of this hugely talented writer.” — The Oregonian

“Like a lyrical chamber piece rich with counterpoint…This is the slim-yet-deep novel that Don DeLillo has been struggling to write for ten years now: Greer, like DeLillo, is determined to say something about lost souls and the American condition, but instead of DeLillo’s sleek, well-machined characters Greer is eager to explore our messier, more irrational selves.” — Washington City Paper

“[A] remarkable piece of fiction, a compelling and beautifully-penned tale of love, long-kept secrets and motherly sacrifice set against a backdrop of race issues, repression and war in 1950s America…The novel will have you gripped from the start…The San Francisco-based author had a bestseller on his hands with The Confessions of Max Tivoli and there is no reason why this cleverly constructed and genuinely moving work shouldn’t do the same.” — The List, Scotland

“As I turned the final page I had one of those ‘this will be a memorable book’ moments. One of those books you know you will still recall with clarity and emotional accuracy years down the line….Written with a perfect rhythm, a cadence that pulses in tune with the reader, The Story of a Marriage is one of those complete and wholly satisfying reading experiences and one of the few books I know I would read again. If I’m still around and compus mentis, ask me about this book in ten years time and I think I may be able to remember every detail.” — dovegreyreader, UK

“a deep understanding about the fallibility of memory and perception” — Time Out NY

“Makes you want to race ahead and stay up all night until you know what happens in the end.” — Colm Toibin

“Andrew Sean Greer, one of the most talented young writers of our time, has written a beautiful and moving tale of war, sacrifice, race, and motherhood. But ultimately, as with The Confessions of Max Tivoli, this is a book about love, and it is a marvel to watch Greer probe the mysteries of love to such devastating effect.” —Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

“This is a haunting book of breathtaking beauty and restraint. Greer’s tone-perfect prose conjures an unforgettable woman who exists both within and somehow above the stifling class, racial and sexual constraints of 1950s America — and who must unravel the great mystery of her place within it.” —Dave Eggers

“Andrew Greer writes with an aching clarity of the heart. This is an exquisite story with shattering realizations about love. The details of a marriage between strangers is so finely observed that I often paused to wonder, “How does he know so much?” — Amy Tan

“The Story of a Marriage is a riveting and fascinating novel full of stunning observations and brilliant moments of truth and sympathy. It is written in prose that makes you want to slow the book down and read passages over again, but it also has a plot which makes you want to race ahead and stay up all night until you know what happens in the end.” — Colm Toibin

“a poignant account of people helpless in the throes of passion and an affirmation of the strength of the human spirit.” — Publisher’s Weekly, starred review

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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