Brawler

by Lauren Groff

Brought to you by Penguin.

One of our best writers, Lauren Groff returns with a fierce new story collection, her first since the award-winning and bestselling Florida.

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 single shared the ceaseless battle between the dark and light in all of us.

Among those 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 human fallibility, 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 fracture points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and survival. It is a timeless, stunning achievement from one of the very best short story writers working today.

Praise for Lauren Groff
"Her writing has a timeless quality" The Times on The Vaster Wilds
"Groff's writing is muscular and precise, her themes wildly resonant" Sunday Times on Matrix
"An audacious piece of storytelling, full of passion, wisdom and magic" Sarah Waters on Matrix
"It's as brightly lit as an illuminated manuscript" Naomi Alderman on Matrix
"One of its stories is a bracing read; together they form a masterpiece" Stylist on Florida
"She's a writer whose turn of phrase can stop you in your tracks" Financial Times on Florida
"Easily the year's best story collection" Vogue on Florida

Lauren Groff 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Audible Audio

Expected publication March 5, 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.