Under Story, the third novel by Chloe Benjamin, whose previous work includes the New York Times bestseller The Immortalists. | 📸 Courtesy of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Under Story takes readers to Antarctica … and toward an impossible second chance.

What would you risk for the chance to change the life you have already lived?

Chloe Benjamin’s new novel, Under Story, arrives Sept. 1 and takes readers to McMurdo Station in Antarctica, where mycologist Laurel Salter has gone to escape a life shaped by grief, regret and fractured relationships.

Then a strange phenomenon appears on the ice: a luminous dome called the Arc. Scientists are drawn to it in search of answers, but for Laurel, its promise becomes deeply personal. The mystery suggests that the past may not be as fixed as she believed—and that another chance at the life she lost could be possible.

Benjamin turns Antarctica into more than a dramatic setting. Its beauty, isolation and unforgiving conditions mirror Laurel’s emotional landscape, creating a story that moves between scientific mystery and intimate heartbreak.

While Under Story is not an Alaska novel, readers familiar with northern places may recognize its sense of remoteness, close-knit research communities and a natural world that is both magnificent and unsentimental. The book uses its speculative premise to explore large questions: What do we owe the people we love? How much of the past would we undo if we could? And would a second chance truly make us whole?

Kirkus Reviews calls the novel “ambitious, poignant, and deeply human,” and booksellers selected it for the September Indie Next List.

For readers drawn to literary fiction, science-driven mysteries and stories of love, loss and possibility, Under Story is a compelling way to begin the fall reading season.

Content note: parental loss, grief, divorce and emotional distress.

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