Brawler (2026) is a short story collection by Lauren Groff. The stories in Brawler feature women breaking free from abusive relationships, young men struggling to find their place in the world, mothers seeking healing after loss, and couples striving to balance love and independence. The stories are written from either the first-person or third-person point of view and explore themes including Discovering Grace in a Violent World, The Conflict Between Personal Desires and Moral Responsibility, and Care as an Act of Love and an Emotional Burden.

This guide uses the 2026 Riverhead Books hardback edition.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include sexual content, cursing, and depictions of graphic violence, domestic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, child sexual abuse, substance use, disordered eating, substance dependency, mental illness, sexual violence, rape, antigay bias, ableism, discrimination, child death, death by suicide, and death.

Plot Summaries

In Brawler, the stories are standalone works which explore common themes of grace and violence, desire and morality, love and liability. The following summary offers a streamlined explanation of each story in the order it appears in the source text.

In “The Wind,” the unnamed first-person narrator tells her mother Michelle’s story, an account from childhood the narrator has heard many times. When Michelle was a girl, she, her brothers, and mother Ruby lived in a violent home, abused by Michelle’s volatile father. One day, they made their escape by car and bus. Michelle’s father came after Ruby, but Michelle and her brothers escaped. The narrator knows her mother continues to carry horror and fear inside of her from this time.

In “Between the Shadow and the Soul,” 50-year-old Eliza decides to retire from her job at the post office. Her husband of 25 years, Willie, insists on throwing her a retirement party. After the gathering, Eliza lies in bed despairing about her purposeless future—an emotional funk that lasts several days. Willie finally signs her up for a master gardening class that renews her verve for life. There, she develops a crush on the energetic instructor, Bet, whom she starts daydreaming about on a regular basis. Soon, Willie confronts Bet about having an affair with his wife, and Eliza overhears their talk—hurt when Bet insists she doesn’t care about her. That night, Eliza lies naked on her bed and holds Willie to her, realizing she could never leave him.

In “To Sunland,” after Joanie and Buddy’s mother dies, Joanie takes Buddy on the bus to an institution for people with mental atypicalities and cognitive differences called Sunland. On the way, she talks to a woman with birds, who ends up stealing her cash while she sleeps. In Gainesville, the siblings walk to Sunland. Joanie momentarily doubts her decision to leave Buddy behind while heading off to college, but ultimately goes through with the plan.

In “Brawler,” a teenager named Sara Brawler competes in a diving match. After getting disqualified, she heads home and cooks two frozen dinners for her and her mom. Her mom has an unspecified mental illness and spends all of her time lying on the couch, watching television, and refusing to eat or drink anything but vodka. Sara has tried to get her help in the past, but to no avail. She sits beside her mother, overcome by a sense of dread that her life will continue this way.

In “Birdie,” former middle-school friends Nic, Melodie, and Sammie travel to the Midwest to say goodbye to their friend Birdie, who is dying of cancer. Around her deathbed, they share stories and talk about the worst things they’ve ever done. When Nic tries sharing her story, the friends cut her off. That night at the hotel, Nic avoids Melodie and Sammie, realizing they never really were her friends. She returns to the hospital the next morning and visits with Birdie alone. Birdie listens to the full story of the summer Nic graduated high school and had affairs with both the mother and father of the child she was babysitting. Then Birdie asks Nic to forgive her for hurting her in middle school—a slight Nic insists she’s gotten over. A week later, Nic learns of Birdie’s death. Her initial grief simmers into anger, realizing she hasn’t fully forgiven Birdie after all.

In “What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?,” Chip grows up in a wealthy and powerful banking family. Although his grandparents are rich and accomplished, they bestow their entire fortune and the future of the company on Chip’s uncle Charley—much to his uncle Flip’s and mother Julia’s dismay. From then on, Julia and Chip’s sister Libby distance themselves from the family.

Years pass. Chip gradually works his way through school, his grandparents securing him a college acceptance despite his poor grades. He parties heavily and coasts through the years. Then his uncle and grandfather offer him a position at the family firm. Chip accepts the job, feeling he has no other option. Not long later, however, his uncle and grandfather let him go.

Offended and depressed, Chip spends several days holed up in his home drinking heavily. Libby finds him and demands he pull himself together. She brings him to their grandparents’ summer property and insists that he take his time to get sober and find himself.

Over the following weeks, Chip devotes himself to renovating the boathouse and caretaker’s cottage. Meanwhile, he has a sexual relationship with Pearl Spang, a woman who works at a local restaurant. However, Pearl cuts off the relationship when Chip gets too attached. Depressed, Chip starts drinking again. While intoxicated one night, he sneaks into Pearl’s house and ends up watching her have sex with another man. Afterwards, Pearl sends her protective brothers after Chip. Not long after, they attack his cottage, Chip spends more time drinking alone and decides to return to Pearl’s to give her a sapphire bracelet. In the trees outside her house, however, Chip sees how happy Pearl is without him. Despairing, he dies by suicide.

In “Under the Wave,” an unnamed woman takes a vacation with her young son and husband. While away, a tsunami occurs, killing her child and husband. At a refugee shelter afterwards, she encounters a small aimless child whom she decides to take home with her. Back in the city, she treats the child like her late son—calling her by her son’s name and using his records to enroll the child in school. Years pass, and the woman and child settle into a life together. One day, around the time of the child’s eighth birthday, a stranger approaches the two at an outdoor mall—exclaiming that the child did in fact survive the flood. The child acts as if she does not know her, insisting the woman is her mother.

In “Such Small Islands,” a young girl named Aura is disappointed when her mother leaves home for the summer and puts her half-sister Gus in charge. Soon, however, Aura grows attached to Gus. When Gus starts dating the boy next door, Oz, Aura becomes jealous. The three go to the beach one day, and Aura intentionally buries their things in the sand and runs off and hides behind some rocks to scare Gus. Even when she hears people calling for her, she doesn’t reveal herself.

In “Annunciation,” the unnamed first-person narrator graduates from college and leaves her life in New England behind, telling no one that she is moving out West. In California, she rents a poolhouse from an elderly woman named Griselda and gets a job at the Department of Human Services. Here, she works on digitizing children’s files with a coworker named Anais. Over time, the narrator becomes skeptical of Anais’s ability to care for her daughter and expresses her concern to her supervisor. The woman reports Anais, and the state takes her daughter away. The narrator is overcome with guilt. 

Not long later, Griselda falls, hits her head, and passes away. The narrator gets a new job and a place to live. Then one day, her mother shows up at her door, relieved to have finally found her. The narrator shows her around the city, surprised by how different her mother seems. The narrator reflects on all she has learned since this phase of her life, and how she contains both good and evil.