Brawler

by Lauren Groff

A stunning, fierce collection from a master of the short story and one of the most important writers of our time.

Read 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 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 inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can.

Precise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Adult

281 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 24, 2026

About the author

Lauren Groff was born in Cooperstown, N.Y. and grew up one block from the Baseball Hall of Fame. She graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Hobart, and Five Points as well as in the anthologies Best American Short Stories 2007, Pushcart Prize XXXII, and Best New American Voices 2008.

She was awarded the Axton Fellowship in Fiction at the University of Louisville, and has had residencies and fellowships at Yaddo and the Vermont Studio Center.

She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband, Clay, and her dog, Cooper.

Reviews

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've been following me for a while, then you know my love for Lauren Groff is nothing new. Lauren is truly one of the greatest writers in modern times and her works are masterpieces.

Her works always make their way onto my top reads of the year list so needless to say Brawler was my most anticipated read of 2026.

I just loved this collection and even though I enjoyed all the stories, my absolute favorites were:
- The Wind
- To Sunland
- Under the Wave
- Annunciation

After finishing the novel, I listened to the audiobook which the author reads. Lauren did an amazing job narrating and bringing these stories to life. If you decide to pick this one up, I highly recommend this format!

Brawler by Lauren Groff was published on February 24 so it’s available now. Many thanks to Penguin Random House Audio and Riverhead Books for the gifted copies!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of nine stories is beautiful, bold, raw, emotional and thorough in their endings!
What a gifted author!
Loved the “Author’s note on the stories” at the end.. gives you the low down on how the idea for each story came about.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Shelf Awareness review: The nine short stories in Lauren Groff's exceptional eighth book profile women in states of desperation and probe legacies of loss and violence.

Most of the stories employ third-person narration and originally appeared in the New Yorker. Often, inherited trauma binds mothers and daughters. The title character is high school swimmer Sara, who shoplifts and fights in frustration at her mother's incurable illness. In "Under the Wave," set after a natural disaster, a woman adopts an orphan as a replacement for her dead child--despite their racial differences. The title of "The Wind" symbolizes women's fear and rage after an attempted escape from an abusive patriarch. Accidental harm and imagery of the Madonna and Child link the three mother-daughter pairs in "Annunciation."

Themes of midlife reinvention and latent queerness (cf. Matrix) recur. Bisexuality is a secret between a dying woman and her friend in "Birdie." In "Between the Shadow and the Soul," a woman finds new hobbies following early retirement. Although she flirts with her female gardening teacher, she realizes her desire is not to leave her husband but to "brush up against the dazzling future again."

"Such Small Islands" is a startling Jamesian fable; "To Sunland" a 1950s Southern gothic black comedy that would do Flannery O'Connor proud; and the masterful "What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?" a suspenseful, novella-length examination of privilege and obsession.

The prose is stellar and the endings breathtaking. Groff is a first-rate novelist, but her short stories are truly peerless.

(Posted with permission from Shelf Awareness.)

[Claire Fuller]

Nine great stories in this third collection from Lauren Groff - with a long almost novella sized one in the middle (What's the Time Mr Wolf) which was probably my favourite. But there were lots of others to love too: To Sunland where siblings have recently lost their mother and the daughter is taking the son to live in a home, and Brawler about a girl who dives and cares for her mother. It's hard to find a linked theme (and that's the joy for me of this collection), but perhaps what goes on beneath the surface of families. My husband and I read them to each other.
Thanks to Penguin for this proof.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first fell in love with Lauren Groff's fiction with her magnificent novel, FATES AND FURIES. I've been hooked ever since. Nevertheless, despite having read all her novels and all her short story collections, I was unprepared for how much the tales in BRAWLER would surprise me, move me, or, best of all, haunt me. The nine tales in it are unpredictable. Some will leave you nodding at a child or teen's capacity for cruelty ("Such Small Islands" or "Birdie"), other's at the wonder inside any human heart ("To Sunland" or "What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?"). It's a poignant, beautiful, always unsettling collection, up there with the very best of Lorrie Moore, Flannery O'Connor, and Karen Russell.

[Maxwell]

I’ve read 2 of Groff’s novels before and enjoyed them both immensely. She has a very particular way with words that I resonate with, and I’m happy, but not surprised, to say that that is just as true in her short fiction! These 9 stories were all powerful, memorable, and beautifully written.

Many of them deal with the intense range of human emotion, especially resiliency, and how women often have to fight to hold onto scraps of power and use that to gain some agency in their lives.

My favorites were “Annunciation,” “Brawler,” “Birdie,” “Between the Shadow and the Soul,” and “Such Small Islands” – but honestly there wasn’t a single story I disliked.

Thanks to Riverhead for sending me a copy of this a bit early! I am excited for more people to pick this up and read it when it’s out in a few weeks.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be trite to say that the characters in Brawler, a collection of nine haunting and provocative stories, are resilient. Resilience has become a 21st century social media meme that celebrates trauma as a rite of passage. Lauren Groff does not exploit her characters to scold us about misogyny or classism. She simply, with brilliant precision, shows these lives in all their sadness, violence, desperation, and terrible beauty.

These are not tales of redemption. Most feature women or girls who move without guile or pretense toward their inevitable futures—or ends, in some cases. There are pivotal moments that break the heart: the last stand against an abusive husband in The Wind, the last journey with a disabled sibling in To Sunland, and the collection's title story featuring a teenage diving whiz who lashes out at school while her mother wastes away at home. The one story featuring a male protagonist, What's the Time, Mr. Wolf, sprawls across time and space—it takes up a third of the collection's pages—and yet has a claustrophobic sense of obsession.

There is a fable-like quality to many of the stories. The dream-like wandering of a tsunami survivor in Under the Wave; the soft-focus Silicon Valley of Annunciation that belies terrible truths just behind the curtain. Instead of softening the blow, this dreaminess delineates the contrast between the way we wish the world was and the horrors it too often delivers.

Despite the dark content, or perhaps because of it, Brawler is impossible to set aside. Groff's prose is riveting in its clarity and spiritedness. She is an astonishingly talented writer with vast breadth and depth, both as a novelist and a short story writer.

Highly recommended.

[Liz Hein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody needs me to tell them Lauren Groff is good with words, but…y’all, Brawler is SO GOOD. I hadn’t read these stories before, and they’re all singularly wonderful. Together, they feel like we got removed from where we are and placed under Groff’s skin as she swims as a means to write. One of the greatest gifts of this book comes at the very end: Groff gives us what she was feeling or thinking about while writing each story. Not what they’re about, but what lives in her that necessitated that story being written.

Short story collections can be difficult to talk about as a whole, but if I had to boil this down, I would say these stories are about crossroads. Very Large or deceptively small moments in lives where everything changes for one reason or another. My favorites were The Wind, Between the Shadow and the Soul, To Sunland, Brawler, and Annunciation. I dare you to read this and not have to choose over half the stories as favorites 🤣

[Trudie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have slowly become a Lauren Groff fan; her historical novels, The Vaster Wilds and Matrix, were both electrifying. Fortunately, I still have plenty of her books that await my attention.
Brawler is Groff's new collection of nine short stories. There are plenty of linking themes you could pull out of this collection, but nuggety women surviving various domestic catastrophes is what I most associate the book with, Brawlers indeed. The scenarios covered are varied - escape from violence, incapacitated mothers, bitchy girlfriends, perimenopausal reinvention, lots of class privilege. It's a fun puzzle to orient yourself in each story, and it's a surprise where Groff takes things.
I admit it took a beat for me to warm to this collection. The first story The Wind seemed like something done better elsewhere, and the longest one What's the time, Mr Wolf took a looong time to pay off. However, there is enough variety here that most Groff fans will find something to love and one, if not more of these characters, will bury themselves under your skin.

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my, Lauren Groff has long been one of my favorite contemporary writers, but this book of short stories, Brawler has left me reeling. This is a much darker book than her two previous books of short stories, Delicate Edible Birds and Other Stories, and Florida. Once again, I must say that this is an audacious collection that I have come to expect with the beautiful writing of Lauren Groff. And I must share the author’s thoughts with her readers in the Acknowledgements:

“Thank you, readers. Writers compose the score, readers make the music.”

Brawler is bursting with combustible characters in frightening and harrowing situations. It seems the book begins and ends with heartfelt stories of an abused woman and her family. The first tale is The Wind, a haunting tale of three small children and their badly beaten mother as they are fleeing a scene of domestic violence. But their father, a policeman, wielding a lot of power is hunting them. As her allies at work attempt to aid their mother, the outcome leaves one breathless. And from this story, there are quotes that sum up the feelings of these poignant stories.

“But always in my mother would blow a silent wind, a wind that died and gusted again, raging throughout her life, touching every moment she lived after this one. She tried her best, but she couldn’t help filling me with this same wind.”

“She was far from first to find it blowing through her, and of course I will not be the last. I look around and can see it in so many other women, passed down from a time beyond history, this wind that is dark and ceaseless and raging within.”

Perhaps one of the most haunting of the tales is the story of a wealthy bank-owning family and their children in What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? And the final story, “Annunciation”, is another tale of domestic violence, a bookend of sorts for the first story. The mothers in these stories are often absent for various reasons including depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and emotionally remote from their families. But it seems that Lauren Groff focuses on the children and how they will survive, and hopefully thrive.

“There are a thousand Madonnas here, with a thousand different faces. Each Madonna wears the face of a particular mortal woman whom the artist loved. Each woman is one whom the animal was briefly overcome by the god that lived within her.”

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Short story collections can be hit and miss for me, and there are several stories in Lauren Groff’s Brawler that I found to be weaker than others, including, oddly, the title story. However, a ‘miss’ by Groff is hardly a miss and still well worth reading. She’s simply too good a writer and storyteller.

The longest story in the collection, and my favorite, is “What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?” It feels more like a novella to me and comes midway through the book. It is, as Alexandra Jacobs writes in her excellent and insightful NYT review: ”Most destined to be a classic.”. Yes, it really is that good. It’s worth buying the book for this story alone. Another stunner is the final story, “Annunciation.” Two of the best short stories I’ve read in a long time. Both are memorable, both blew me away.

[Aly Lauck · Rating 5 out of 5]

She rarely misses. Enjoyed the short stories immensely! Great writer, stunning storytelling.

[Tell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A trio of female friends visit their fourth member at her deathbed, asking plainly: what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?

Additionally, generational trauma, addiction, and the patriarchy are crystallized and immortalized in a story of rebuilding a life after rock bottom. These are only two of the pitch perfect, sharply drawn, brilliantly constructed stories in this book.

Groff is an expert of her craft, her use of language is always sharp, incisive, and obsessed with the human condition: Groff excavates not only our relationships to nature, but to desire, wanting, fleeing, arriving, hurting, and being. I am a super fan but genuinely, these stories are that good.

I’ll be thinking about Birdie and What’s the Time, Mister Wolf? forever.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I genuinely don't know how Lauren Groff does it--how each of her books are so different from each other, yet she still never misses.

The age-old advice is to write what you know, and, looking at Groff's notes at the end of Brawler, it appears many of the stories in this collection originated from one small idea taken from her life. She takes those tidbits and fashions a whole world around them in a few short paragraphs. Yes, that's what writers do, but I've read so many authors who repeat themselves in their work. Every protagonist is a writer or every story takes place in the same small town or every conflict is caused by a crotchety old man who is set in his ways. Every story of Groff's, however, is wholly original.

A throughline in this collection seems to be violence against women--specifically violence perpetrated by a man, often in domestic situations. We see a mother taking her children and fleeing from an abusive husband, another mother living with her daughter in a van so they can always stay one step ahead of the man that almost killed her, and a man who stalks his ex-lover in increasingly intrusive and violent ways.

Following that pattern, you'd expect the titular Brawler to be male, but she's female--a teen diver who is essentially raising herself and her hypochondriac mother. In passing, it's mentioned that she abandons swimming for diving after too many instances of brushing the crotches of her male teammates in the pool. "Most of the boys hadn't complained, some had even slowed down as they passed, but it took only one whiner, and then she was forced to switch to diving," Groff writes.

I found it interesting that the one story without an abusive male figure in fact contains a sexually abusive *female* figure, and Groff names the book after her. I look forward to when the book comes out to see what reviewers make of this and if Groff is asked about it in any interviews. That's the disadvantage of reading a book before its release--you want to talk about it but you're forced to remain patient.

[Kristi Hovington · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are very few people for whom I'd read a short story collection; Groff is one of them. This book is stunning from start to finish. Also? surprisingly queer, which was a delightful surprise. I don't know how she made me feel so many emotions in stories that are mostly under 20 pages; I think this is better than Florida, her other collection, and I gave that one 5 stars, too. I literally gasped at the end of some of them, some because I was surprised, some because I was moved; I think this is the best book i've read this year.

[Senga krew_w_piach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nie wiem ile razy do tej pory napisałam zdanie: „Lauren Groff jest królową opowiadań”, ale będę je powtarzać znów i znów, bo taka jest prawda i nie ma co z tym dyskutować.
Wszystkie bohaterki i bohaterowie „Awanturnicy” uchwyceni są przez autorkę w sytuacjach granicznych, które mogą zamienić się w moment przełomowy lub klęskę. Konfrontowani są z wydarzeniami, które w różny sposób dotykają każde z nas – przemoc, śmierć bliskiej osoby, odrzucenie czy starzenie się – nic z tego nas nie ominie. Życie to zmiana, a my tylko możemy próbować się do niej ciągle od nowa zaadoptować. I tak jak u Groff, jednym to wychodzi lepiej, innym gorzej.
Autorka jak zwykle mistrzowsko buduje nastrój i portret psychologiczny postaci, wszystko jest wiarygodne i uruchamia empatię. Bałam się, że po pierwszym opowiadaniu, które jeśli chodzi o dramaturgię na pewno jest najmocniejsze w tym zbiorze i zmiażdżyło mnie emocjonalnie, reszta po mnie spłynie - ale tak się nie stało. Jest tu dużo przejmujących historii, które trafiają w różne czułe punkty i nie potrzeba do tego obucha. Ogromną przyjemnością było dla mnie odkrycie na końcu książki krótkiego komentarza Lauren Groff, w którym opisuje swój prywatny związek, czy też źródło inspiracji do każdego opowiadania. Bardzo to miły gest w stronę czytelniczki i przeniesienie relacji na poziom trochę bardziej osobisty. A z jeszcze większą radością odkryłam, że Groff pływała, co potwierdza moją teorię, że wodne kobiety są wyjątkowe i wyjaśnia czemu jej twórczość tak ze mną rezonuje.

Oczywiście, jak to bywa ze zbiorami opowiadań, nie wszystkie teksty podobały mi się tak samo. Ale to w ogóle nie ma dla mnie znaczenia, bo Groff nie tylko dobrze pisze i tworzy piękne zdania, ale jest też mistrzynią scenek. I nawet jeśli cały utwór do mnie nie przemawia, to w każdym znalazłam obraz, który zostanie ze mną na dłużej.
Tak jak ta scena z opowiadania „Raz, dwa, trzy, Baba Jaga patrzy”, które nie należy do moich ulubionych, zakończenie wydało mi się łopatologiczne, ale ten fragment mnie porwał, przeniósł w ulubiony stan, na chwilę straciłam własną tożsamość i byłam tym chłopcem. Przeczytajcie tylko.

„Chłopiec unosił się z traszkami w ciemnych wodach stawu. Wierzchołki sosen podpalały niebo, jastrząb powoli krążył wokół słońca. Na płyciźnie dwa psy przypominały wyspy rudozłotych pysków, grzbietów, ogonów. Na brzegu, w wielkim domu, kobiety popijały z filiżanek zimny gin, a mężczyźni odpoczywali nago w zacienionych sypialniach w strudze wiatru, który dobywał się z potężnych wiatraków.

Chłopiec leżał w stawie całe popołudnie, bardzo długo, niemal nabrał pewności, że woda wlała mu się przez uszy do mózgu i wypłukała z niego wszelkie myśli. Był teraz tępy jak traszki z tymi grubymi brzuszkami i rozczapierzonymi odnóżami. Najchętniej leżałby tak dalej, zawieszony z dala od pełnego napięcia, gorącego popołudnia, aż do zmierzchu i świetlików, leżałby tu do nocy, do świtu, przez resztę lata i jesieni, kiedy powierzchnia wody pokryje się czerwonymi liśćmi klonów, i przez zimę, której chłód spowolni ciało tak bardzo, że serce zabije tylko raz dziennie, a lód delikatnie pokryje skórę niczym warstewka szkła. Takie życie traszki nie byłoby złe. Podtrzymywałaby go ciemna brązowa woda, która tylko obmywała skórę, nie chcąc niczego w zamian.”

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

sometimes there was some really excellent, profound prose and other times there was the corniest shit i ever read. sometimes it was at the same time, which was confusing. overall not a bad book to mostly read on the porch with the cat and a glass of wine, but don't know if i'd recommend.

[Book Riot Community]

Book Riot’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026:

All I need to know about Lauren Groff's new short story collection is that it's a collection of short stories by Lauren Groff. Always a sharp observer of human nature and often a cutting one, Groff has become one of the most exciting writers working today. Whether she's dissecting a complicated marriage while exploring the mysteries of perspective or walking right up to the edge of the mystical in a 13th-century convent, she finds a way to speak to the present moment by saying something timeless and deeply original. I don't know what will happen in these short stories, but I know what they will be about: humanity in all its messy, fascinating wonder. —Rebecca Joines Schinsky

[Penny (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 4 out of 5]

There wasn't a bad one in the bunch, but these are not happy and uplifting stories. They are sometimes disturbing and most leave you feeling unsettled. They are stories of abuse, abandonment, neglect but at the end of each story many were about women finding themselves or coming to a reckoning of their pasts to their presents. My favourites were 'The Wind', 'Birdie' (definite favourite, very relatable) and 'Annunciation.'

[Troy]

Another amazing collection from one of our greatest living writers. The brilliance and complexity of these characters and stories unfurl with complete radiance. Groff is an exceptional short story writer and really gets you to think about the characters, their predicaments, their lives. Everything she writes feels real and true to life. She covers a lot of ground in this collection, moving through different historical periods to our modern era, but always manages to convey her protagonists at the apex of something profound happening in their lives, a moment of no return. Groff is a wonder.

Advanced digital galley provided by Riverhead/Netgalley, exp. pub date: Feb 24, 2026

[Kim B · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of these stories, for the most part, blew me away. But I have to specifically point out the final one, Annunciation. It was stunning and one of the most beautiful short stories I’ve ever read. I also loved the section “author’s note on the stories” at the end of the book where Groff has written a short paragraph related to each story, so don’t miss that section if you read these short stories!

[Jolanta (knygupė) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,4*
Nejaugi būsiu persirgusi Groff (apsakymais)? Ehhhh... Bet visgi manau, kad Floridai šis rinkinys nė iš tolo neprilygsta.

[victoria marie]

with a blend of literary craft & raw feeling, this brilliant collection contains narratives that are layered, dark & reflective, & unsettling… lingering long after turning the page.

these stories repeatedly pit love against fear, compassion against violence, & instinct against reason… with emotional intensity, recurring themes of heartbreak & characters wrestling with inner angels/demons…

&, the audiobook was great, but someday hope to get this in print (plus read her collection Florida)!

recommend. first story collection published in 2026 that I’ve enjoyed this much.

[Rendezvouswithbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lauren Groff for me is one of the finest explorers of landscapes. The finnese & subtle differences in her work comes from the facts that the landscapes that she is painting are either
Primal ( Vaster Wilds), Social ( Matrix) or
Psychological ( Fates &Furies)

Brawler for me stood out as an amalgamation of all these 3 & what a fine one at that

It's a rare occasion when the build up of each story completely grasps your attention & that ending renders out an audible gasp

I absolutely loved each one of these 9 stories, many of which have been published in NYT over a period

As a mother though 'Under the waves' will always stay close to my heart. While - The Wind, What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? & Annunciation will stay etched in my mind forever

The Wind - Fierce - A propulsive story about a mother's efforts to escape from a life of domestic violence

Between the Shadow and the Soul - Midlife crisis - Focuses on the stirring desires of middle age

To Sunland - Gritty - Young Joanie navigates through misogyny of her small town while taking hard decisions for her disabled brother

Brawler - Transcendent - Captures the animalistic survival instincts of high school swimmer, Sara as she navigates thru her mother's illness

Birdie - Cathartic - A group of friends confront their darkest shared secrets

What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? - Haunting - You have to read it to find out that ending

Under the Wave - Nurtural - The beautiful ways in which a mother finds closure

Such Small Islands - Formative - Examines the complexities of childhood

Annunciation - Layered - A powerful coming of age story centered on a woman finding her own path

Groff's writing is very evocative, cinematic with vivid description of flora and fauna with delectable prose

The range of themes this collection explores from domestic violence, masculinity, grief, power, privilege makes this is a top notch one

It's a must read
Thank you @penguinrandomhouse for the review copy

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lauren Groff's latest collection, 'Brawler,' absolutely took my breath away. Her writing is just spectacular; each of the nine stories was so powerful, I couldn't possibly pick a favorite. She explores moral complexity through normal people dealing with the toughest moments, like a sister who's suddenly responsible for her disabled brother. Watching these characters fight for survival, whether it's through love or primal instinct made me consider my own biases and empathy. It definitely left me reflecting on what makes us human. Another stellar read from a Master storyteller.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Jessica Jeruzal · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are so blessed to be living at the same time Lauren Groff is writing.

[Charlotte Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. Best short story collection I’ve ever read by a mile

[Stephanie Lackey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating, haunting, gorgeous. Lauren Groff is a master. I just love her so much. Best thing I’ve read in a while.

[kendra]

dnf ~ 20%

idk. i quite liked the first story "the wind" but the second one bored me so deeply that i lost all interest in opening the book again. maybe i'll pick it up again at another time or maybe i just don't fw short story collections. time will tell.