Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff Synopsis Mathilde and Lotto elope after only five weeks of dating. The book covers the course of their marriage and the secrets that keep it alive. Review This book won many "Book of the Year" awards, plus was President Obama's favorite book of 2015. I like reading books that get a lot of attention like this, since often they're fairly decent books. However, this book was definitely not among my favorites, nor even close. I felt like this book pretentiously sells itself on the discussion and examination of abstract values and emotions, like "art", "creativity", "love" through flawed and hyper-"realistic" characters, but lacks actual substance. Lotto is an arrogant playboy who has slept with every girl he can get his hands on, and an aspiring actor who isn't a very good actor at all. But instead of doing something else, he sits around for seven years while Mathilde keeps their ...