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Lionel Shriver's novels include the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, which won the 2005 Orange Prize and has now sold over a million copies worldwide. Other books include Double Fault, A Perfectly Good Family, and So Much for That. Lionel’s novels have been translated into twenty-five different languages and. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. She lives in London.
Sometimes we are given gifts we really don't want. And when that gift comes from an ex-love and is a sculpture that you and your partner are meant to live with forever, there's no giving it back. The Standing Chandelier is a brilliant gem of a novella from the resonant and searing voice Lionel Shriver.
A huge tale of a future America and its economic downfall. It centres on four generations of one family, the Mandibles, and attempts to explain how the economics of 2029 works. Whites are in the minority, the Hispanics the majority, along with the obese and the elderly. Robots are fully functional so employment opportunities are minimal. There is a water shortage and later a shortage of everything. Theft and extortion shine. There are many families to a house, even to a room. By 2047 quite a lot has recovered and people are now ‘chipped’. We learn all this as our family struggles to survive. Strangely it seems very plausible as it gives us a glimmer of light in one State, Nevada. It is a challenging read, a story of optimism as well as destruction, impressive and fascinating.
May 2016 Book of the Month. A huge tale of a future America and its economic downfall. It centres on four generations of one family, the Mandibles, and attempts to explain how the economics of 2029 works. Whites are in the minority, the Hispanics the majority, along with the obese and the elderly. Robots are fully functional so employment opportunities are minimal. There is a water shortage and later a shortage of everything. Theft and extortion shine. There are many families to a house, even to a room. By 2047 quite a lot has recovered and people are now ‘chipped’. We learn all this as our family struggles to survive. Strangely it seems very plausible as it gives us a glimmer of light in one State, Nevada. It is a challenging read, a story of optimism as well as destruction, impressive and fascinating.
A blackly comic novel from the author of We need to talk about Kevin, this was first published in 1994 and languished out of print for years till the success of ‘Kevin’ shone a spotlight on her earlier work. Set in 90s Africa this is a deeply un-PC novel that pits a liberal family planning activist do-gooder against a misanthrope as darker forces than they are at work to consider population ‘management’. Not one to read if you want to like the characters but a dark and still prescient work.
Once again Shriver takes on a contentious topic head-on. In the case of Big Brother it is the effects on a family of a morbidly obese ‘big brother'. Rich with Shriver's distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: why we overeat and whether extreme diets ever really work. It asks just how much sacrifice we'll make to save single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves. Click here to view the page for New Republic by the same author, out now in paperback.
May 2013 eBook of the Month. Once again Shriver takes on a contentious topic head-on. In the case of Big Brother it is the effects on a family of a morbidly obese ‘big brother'. Rich with Shriver's distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: why we overeat and whether extreme diets ever really work. It asks just how much sacrifice we'll make to save single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves. Click here to view the page for New Republic by the same author, which is just out in paperback.
Through the character of Edgar Kellogg, ex fat kid, ex corporate lawyer and now wannabe journalist, Shriver explores the lengths you’ll go to and the things you’ll do when you are desperate to be known. It’s also important to remember, and interesting to note, when you read this that it was written in 1998, five years before her Orange Prize winner. A time capsule piece of wit, cynicism and satire. Click here to view the page for Big Brother by the same author, which is due out in hardback on 9 May 2013.
June 2012 Book of the Month and eBook of the Month. Through the character of Edgar Kellogg, ex fat kid, ex corporate lawyer and now wannabe journalist, Shriver explores the lengths you’ll go to and the things you’ll do when you are desperate to be known. It’s also important to remember, and interesting to note, when you read this that it was written in 1998, five years before her Orange Prize winner. A time capsule piece of wit, cynicism and satire.
Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005. Narrated by a mother, Eve, in letters to her estranged husband, this is a truly horrific story of a 15-year old boy’s killing spree but more than that it's the tale of how he got there rather than of the crime itself. It harks back to Eve’s relationship with her husband and the upbringing of the child. The big question is how much she is, or not, to blame for the tragedy that unfolds. Stark and unbelievably painful, it touches on truths not often spoken of. A great book.
Shepherd Knacker has been saving all his working life for a one way ticket away from the daily grind. When he sells his handyman business for $1million, 'The Afterlife' seems tantalisingly within reach. Yet his wife has concocted one reason after another why now isn't the time to go. Determined to take the plunge, Shep announces that he is leaving for an island off the coast of Tanzania: with or without her. However, Glynis has an announcement of her own -- she needs his health insurance. Illustrating how a marriage is both stressed and strengthened by medical crisis, So Much for That puts the uncomfortable fiscal question: how much is one life worth?
Shortlisted for the prestigious U.S. National Book Award 2010. Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 15 April 2010. A book about terminal illness and battling the healthcare system may not sound much fun but Lionel Shriver adds her marvellous touch to every page making it a compelling and moving read.
Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005. Narrated by a mother, Eve, in letters to her estranged husband, this is a truly horrific story of a 15-year old boy’s killing spree but it is more the tale of how he got there than of the crime itself. It harks back to Eve’s relationship with her husband and the upbringing of the child. The big question is how much she is, or not, to blame for the tragedy that unfolds. Stark and unbelievably painful, it touches on truths not often spoken of. A great book. Similar this month: None but try Clare Sambrook.Comparison: Douglas Coupland, Alex Garland, Jodi Picoult.
The latest offering from the author of We Need to Talk About Kevin. A dazzling novel with perceptive insights on love and marriage. As you'd expect from a past winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, Shriver's writing is spellbinding. Even if you hate tennis with a passion, you won't be able to put this down.
Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005Lionel Shriver tells a compelling, absorbing, and resonant story while framing these horrifying tableaux of teenage carnage as metaphors for the larger tragedy - the tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose. This title is also available as an Audiobook, in either CD or cassette format.
The first ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel Shriver'Genius' Stylist'Phenomenal' Observer'Brilliant' The TimesIn her first ever story collection, Lionel Shriver illuminates one of the modern age's most enduring obsessions: property.A woman creates a deeply personal wedding present for her best friend; a thirty-something son refuses to leave home; a middle-aged man subjugated by service to his elderly father discovers that the last place you should finally assert yourself is airport security.This landmark publication explores the idea of "e;property"e; in both senses of the word: real estate, and stuff. Immensely readable, it showcases the biting insight that has made Lionel Shriver one of the most acclaimed authors of our time.
The first ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel Shriver `Genius' Stylist `Phenomenal' Observer `Brilliant' The Times This landmark publication, the first collection of stories from a master of the form, explores the idea of property in both senses of the word: real estate, and stuff. These sharp, brilliantly imaginative pieces illustrate how our possessions act as proxies for ourselves, and how tussles over ownership articulate the power dynamics of our relationships. In Shriver's world, we may possess people and objects and places, but in turn they possess us. In the stunning novella The Standing Chandelier (`a brutal treat': Daily Mail), a woman with a history of attracting other women's antagonism creates a deeply personal wedding present for her best friend and his wife-to-be. In Domestic Terrorism, a thirty-something son refuses to leave home, resulting in a standoff that renders him a Millennial cause celebre. In The ChapStick, a middle-aged man subjugated by service to his elderly father discovers that the last place you should finally assert yourself is airport security. In Vermin, an artistic Brooklyn couple's purchase of a ramshackle house destroys their once passionate relationship. In The Subletter, two women, both foreign conflict junkies, fight over claim to a territory that doesn't belong to either. This immensely readable collection showcases the biting insight that has made Lionel Shriver one of the most acclaimed authors of our time, described by the Sunday Times as `a brilliant writer' with `a strong, clear and strangely seductive voice'.
The first ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel Shriver `Genius' Stylist `Phenomenal' Observer `Brilliant' The Times This landmark publication, the first collection of stories from a master of the form, explores the idea of property in both senses of the word: real estate, and stuff. These sharp, brilliantly imaginative pieces illustrate how our possessions act as proxies for ourselves, and how tussles over ownership articulate the power dynamics of our relationships. In Shriver's world, we may possess people and objects and places, but in turn they possess us. In the stunning novella The Standing Chandelier (`a brutal treat': Daily Mail), a woman with a history of attracting other women's antagonism creates a deeply personal wedding present for her best friend and his wife-to-be. In Domestic Terrorism, a thirty-something son refuses to leave home, resulting in a standoff that renders him a Millennial cause celebre. In The ChapStick, a middle-aged man subjugated by service to his elderly father discovers that the last place you should finally assert yourself is airport security. In Vermin, an artistic Brooklyn couple's purchase of a ramshackle house destroys their once passionate relationship. In The Subletter, two women, both foreign conflict junkies, fight over claim to a territory that doesn't belong to either. This immensely readable collection showcases the biting insight that has made Lionel Shriver one of the most acclaimed authors of our time, described by the Sunday Times as `a brilliant writer' with `a strong, clear and strangely seductive voice'.
USA im Jahr 2029. Der Dollar ist kollabiert und durch eine Reservewahrung ersetzt. Wasser ist kostbar geworden. Und Florence Mandible und ihr dreizehnjahriger Sohn Willing essen seit viel zu langer Zeit nur Kohl. Dass es Florence trotz guter Ausbildung so schwer haben wurde, ihr Leben zu meistern, hatte niemand aus der Familie gedacht. Doch als die Mandibles alles verlieren und in einem Park Unterschlupf suchen mussen, sind es nicht die Erwachsenen, sondern Willing, der mit Pragmatismus, Weitsicht und notfalls auch krimineller Entschlossenheit dem Mandible-Clan wieder auf die Beine hilft ... Scharfsinnig und ironisch erzhlt Lionel Shriver von den Konsequenzen von Globalisierung und Nationalismus - eine bengstigende Zukunftsvision und ein komischer, liebevoller, fesselnder Familienroman.
Sometimes we are given gifts we really don't want. And when that gift comes from an ex-love and is a sculpture that you and your partner are meant to live with forever, there's no giving it back. The Standing Chandelier is a brilliant gem of a novella from the resonant and searing voice Lionel Shriver.
From the award-winning novelist and short story writer, Lionel Shriver, comes a literary gem, a story about love and the power of a gift.When Weston Babansky receives an extravagant engagement present from his best friend (and old flame) Jillian Frisk, he doesn't quite know what to make of it - or how to get it past his fiancee. Especially as it's a massive, handmade, intensely personal sculpture that they'd have to live with forever.As the argument rages about whether Jillian's gift was an act of pure platonic generosity or something more insidious, battle lines are drawn Can men and women ever be friends? Just friends?Described by the Sunday Times as 'a brilliant writer' with 'a strong, clear and strangely seductive voice', Lionel Shriver has written a glittering examination of friendship, ownership and the conditions of love.
From the Orange Prize-winning author of WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN comes a grimly comic tale of bad ideas and good intentions. With a deft, droll touch, Shriver highlights the hypocrisy of lofty intellectuals who would "e;save"e; humanity but who don't like people. Eleanor Merritt, a do-gooding American family-planning worker, was drawn to Kenya to improve the lot of the poor. Unnervingly, she finds herself falling in love with the beguiling Calvin Piper despite, or perhaps because of, his misanthropic theories about population control and the future of the human race. Surely, Calvin whispers seductively in Eleanor's ear, if the poor are a responsibility they are also an imposition. Set against the vivid backdrop of modern-day Africa, Game Control is a wry, sardonic conspiracy story about bad ideas and good intentions.
'When feminism has become the politics that dare not speak its name, it is refreshing to find an author who will bring such renewed vigour to the gender wars' Guardian"e;Love me, love my game,"e; says professional tennis player Willy Novinsky at twenty-three. Tennis has been Willy's one love, until she meets the uncannily confident Eric Oberdorf. Low-ranked but untested, Eric, too, aims to make his mark on the international tennis circuit.They marry. But their life together soon grows poisoned by full-tilt competition over which spouse can rise to the top first. Willy discovers that her perfect partner may also prove her most devastating opponent.An unflinching look at the ravages of rivalry in the two-career relationship, Double Fault is not so much about tennis as about marriage-a slightly different sport.
Following the success of We Need to Talk About Kevin this is a stunning examination of inheritance, literal and psychological: what we take from our parents, what we discard, and what we are stuck with, like it or not. After having escaped for years to London, Corlis McCrea returns to the grand Reconstruction mansion where she grew up in North Carolina, now willed to the three grown children following the death of their parents. All three want the house. Fiscal necessity dictates that two must buy a third out. Just as she was torn as a girl, the sister must choose between her decent younger brother and the renegade eldest-the black sheep who covets his legacy in order to destroy it. The adult siblings re-enact the deep enmities and loyalties of childhood, as each bids for a bigger slice of the pie.
Kurz vor seinem sechzehnten Geburtstag richtet Kevin in der Schule ein Blutbad an. Innerhalb weniger Stunden ist das Leben seiner Familie nicht mehr, wie es war. - Lionel Shriver erzahlt aus der Sicht einer Mutter, die sich auf schmerzhafte und ehrliche Weise mit Schuld und Verantwortung, mit Liebe und Verlust auseinandersetzt. Hatte sie ihr Kind mehr lieben sollen? Hatte sie das Ungluck verhindern konnen? Ein hochst aktueller Roman von erschutternder Klarheit und stilistischer Brillanz.
From the Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin this is a novel about what it takes to make it in music. How charisma is worth its weight in gold. And how jealously can grow until it has eaten away at a musician's heart. He has that thing that they'd all pay for but can't buy: on stage and off, the 19-year-old rock drummer Checker Secretti is electric. When he plays with his band The Derailleurs, the natives of Astoria, Queens clamour for a piece of him. But charisma comes at a price. A Salieri to Checker's Mozart, the fiercely envious fellow drummer Eaton Striker is eager to sow discord among the Derailleurs, that he might replace the exasperatingly popular goody-goody in the close-knit neighbourhood's affections. An examination of the passion, the jealousy and the friendship of young musicians trying to break out, Checker and The Derailleurs is also about cycling, rock lyrics, glass blowing, the marriage of convenience, and-most of all-the mystery of joy.
From the Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, this is the novel Lionel Shriver wrote directly afterwards. The Post-Birthday World is an unflinching account of the choices that unfold before us and what our decisions really mean. Irina McGovern's destiny hinges on a single kiss. Whether she gives into its temptation will determine whether she stays with her reliable partner Lawrence, or runs off with Ramsey, a hard-living snooker player. Employing a parallel universe structure, Shriver spins Irina's competing futures with two drastically different men. An intellectual and fellow American, Lawrence is clever and supportive, but rigid and emotionally withdrawn. A British celebrity, Ramsey is passionate and spontaneous, but jealous, undereducated, and prone to pick arguments. Their contrasting characters will colour her other relationships, her career, and the texture of her daily life. If love is always about trade-offs-if every romantic prospect is flawed-how can we ever know whom to choose?
A huge tale of a future America and its economic downfall. It centres on four generations of one family, the Mandibles, and attempts to explain how the economics of 2029 works. Whites are in the minority, the Hispanics the majority, along with the obese and the elderly. Robots are fully functional so employment opportunities are minimal. There is a water shortage and later a shortage of everything. Theft and extortion shine. There are many families to a house, even to a room. By 2047 quite a lot has recovered and people are now ‘chipped’. We learn all this as our family struggles to survive. Strangely it seems very plausible as it gives us a glimmer of light in one State, Nevada. It is a challenging read, a story of optimism as well as destruction, impressive and fascinating.
The first novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin is a compelling and provocative story of love and how we suffer for it. Still unattached and childless at fifty-nine, world-renowned anthropologist Gray Kaiser is seemingly invincible-and untouchable. Returning to make a documentary at the site of her first great triumph in Kenya, she is accompanied by her faithful middle-aged assistant, Errol McEchern, who has loved her for years in silence. When young graduate assistant Raphael Sarasola arrives on the scene, Gray is captivated and falls hopelessly in love-before an amazed Errol's eyes. As he follows their affair with jealous fascination, Errol watches helplessly from the sidelines as a proud and fierce woman is reduced to miserable dependence through miserable dependence.
'Shriver's intelligence, mordant humour and vicious leaps of imagination all combine to make this a novel that is as unsettling as it is entertaining' FINANCIAL TIMESThe brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin.It is 2029.The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-year-old patriarch dies. Yet America's soaring national debt has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid. Under siege from an upstart international currency, the dollar is in meltdown. A bloodless world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families.Their inheritance turned to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment, but also - as the effects of the downturn start to hit - the challenge of sheer survival.Recently affluent Avery is petulant that she can't buy olive oil, while her sister Florence is forced to absorb strays into her increasingly cramped household. As their father Carter fumes at having to care for his demented stepmother now that a nursing home is too expensive, his sister Nollie, an expat author, returns from abroad at 73 to a country that's unrecognizable.Perhaps only Florence's oddball teenage son Willing, an economics autodidact, can save this formerly august American family from the streets.This is not science fiction. This is a frightening, fascinating, scabrously funny glimpse into the decline that may await the United States all too soon, from the pen of perhaps the most consistently perceptive and topical author of our times.
A short story by Lionel Shriver from the collection Reader, I Married Him: Stories inspired by Jane Eyre.In 'The Self-Seeding Sycamore', a widow wages war upon her neighbour's garden, and makes a surprising discovery.Edited by Tracy Chevalier, the full collection, Reader I Married Him, brings together some of the finest and most creative voices in fiction today, to celebrate and salute the strength and lasting relevance of Charlotte Bronte's game-changing novel and its beloved narrator.
Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005. Narrated by a mother, Eve, in letters to her estranged husband, this is a truly horrific story of a 15-year old boy’s killing spree but it is more the tale of how he got there than of the crime itself. It harks back to Eve’s relationship with her husband and the upbringing of the child. The big question is how much she is, or not, to blame for the tragedy that unfolds. Stark and unbelievably painful, it touches on truths not often spoken of. A great book. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
From the Orange Prize-winning author of WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN comes a bold and savage story of the intersection of politics and human relationships, set in turbulent Northern Ireland.Having abandoned Philadelphia for the life of an international nomad, Estrin Lancaster has a taste for hot spots. She now finds herself in Belfast, a city scarred by twenty years of ritualised violence.As the former purveyor of his own bomb-disposal service, Farrell O'Phelan courts the company of destruction. Technically a Catholic, he shuns allegiance of any kind.For these two, normal life is anathema; love is a trap. What ensues is an affair between two loners who are beset with a fear of domesticity and a hunger for devastation.
The first novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin is a compelling and provocative story of love and how we suffer for it. Still unattached and childless at fifty-nine, world-renowned anthropologist Gray Kaiser is seemingly invincible-and untouchable. Returning to make a documentary at the site of her first great triumph in Kenya, she is accompanied by her faithful middle-aged assistant, Errol McEchern, who has loved her for years in silence. When young graduate assistant Raphael Sarasola arrives on the scene, Gray is captivated and falls hopelessly in love-before an amazed Errol's eyes. As he follows their affair with jealous fascination, Errol watches helplessly from the sidelines as a proud and fierce woman is reduced to miserable dependence through miserable dependence.
A blackly comic novel from the author of We need to talk about Kevin, this was first published in 1994 and languished out of print for years till the success of ‘Kevin’ shone a spotlight on her earlier work. Set in 90s Africa this is a deeply un-PC novel that pits a liberal family planning activist do-gooder against a misanthrope as darker forces than they are at work to consider population ‘management’. Not one to read if you want to like the characters but a dark and still prescient work.
From the Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, this is the novel Lionel Shriver wrote directly afterwards. The Post-Birthday World is an unflinching account of the choices that unfold before us and what our decisions really mean. Irina McGovern's destiny hinges on a single kiss. Whether she gives into its temptation will determine whether she stays with her reliable partner Lawrence, or runs off with Ramsey, a hard-living snooker player. Employing a parallel universe structure, Shriver spins Irina's competing futures with two drastically different men. An intellectual and fellow American, Lawrence is clever and supportive, but rigid and emotionally withdrawn. A British celebrity, Ramsey is passionate and spontaneous, but jealous, undereducated, and prone to pick arguments. Their contrasting characters will colour her other relationships, her career, and the texture of her daily life. If love is always about trade-offs-if every romantic prospect is flawed-how can we ever know whom to choose?
Following the success of We Need to Talk About Kevin this is a stunning examination of inheritance, literal and psychological: what we take from our parents, what we discard, and what we are stuck with, like it or not. After having escaped for years to London, Corlis McCrea returns to the grand Reconstruction mansion where she grew up in North Carolina, now willed to the three grown children following the death of their parents. All three want the house. Fiscal necessity dictates that two must buy a third out. Just as she was torn as a girl, the sister must choose between her decent younger brother and the renegade eldest-the black sheep who covets his legacy in order to destroy it. The adult siblings re-enact the deep enmities and loyalties of childhood, as each bids for a bigger slice of the pie.
From the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin comes the most entertaining novel about illness and death one's ever likely to read and asks the uncomfortable fiscal question: how much is one life worth? Shepherd Knacker has been saving all his working life for a one way ticket away from the daily grind. When he sells his handyman business for $1million, `The Afterlife' seems tantalisingly within reach. Yet his wife has concocted one reason after another why now isn't the time to go. Determined to take the plunge, Shep announces that he is leaving for an island off the coast of Tanzania: with or without her. However, Glynis has an announcement of her own - she needs his health insurance.
Irina McGovern kann sich ein Leben ohne den klugen, geistreichen und verlasslichen Lawrence nicht vorstellen - auch wenn die Leidenschaft ihrer Liebe mit den Jahren abgeflaut ist. Doch als Irina sich der uberwaltigenden Anziehungskraft von Ramsey hingibt, verandert ein Kuss ihr Leben, und ein Spiel mit zwei Wirklichkeiten beginnt ...
Pandora war immer nur die kleine Schwester. Ihr Bruder Edison, der geniale New Yorker Pianist, stand von Anfang an im Vordergrund und wurde irgendwann ganz oben stehen, da waren sich alle sicher. Als er nun Pandora und ihre Familie im landlichen Iowa besucht, muss sie erschreckt feststellen, dass der bewunderte groe Bruder sich nicht nur in der Lebensluge vom erfolgreichen Musiker eingerichtet hat, sondern inzwischen uber 150 Kilo wiegt. Vor allem die Spannungen zwischen Edison und ihrem Mann Fletcher nehmen mit jeder Mahlzeit, mit jedem Gesprach uber Disziplin und mavolles Leben zu. Statt ihn rauszuschmeien beschliet Pandora, Edison einer radikalen Diat zu unterziehen. Sie zieht mit ihm von zu Hause aus, um sich ganz diesem Ziel widmen zu konnen. Aber Fletcher weigert sich, Pandoras Plan zu unterstutzen - und sie begreift, dass sie nur eines retten kann: ihre Ehe oder ihren Bruder.
Once again Shriver takes on a contentious topic head-on. In the case of Big Brother it is the effects on a family of a morbidly obese ‘big brother'. Rich with Shriver's distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: why we overeat and whether extreme diets ever really work. It asks just how much sacrifice we'll make to save single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves. Click here to view the page for New Republic by the same author, out now in paperback.
From the acclaimed author of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin comes a striking new novel about siblings, marriage, and obesity.When Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at her local Iowa airport, she literally doesnt recognize him. In the four years since the siblings last saw each other, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened?And its not just the weight. Imposing himself on Pandoras world, Edison breaks her husband Fletchers handcrafted furniture, makes overkill breakfasts for the family, and entices her stepson not only to forgo college but to drop out of high school.After the brother-in-law has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: Its him or me. Putting her marriage and adopted family on the line, Pandora chooses her brotherwho, without her support in losing weight, will surely eat himself into an early grave.Rich with Shrivers distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fatan issue both social and excruciatingly personal. It asks just how much well sacrifice to rescue single members of our families, and whether its ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.
The new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin.When Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at her local Iowa airport, she literally doesn't recognize him. The once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened?Soon Edison's slovenly habits, appalling diet, and know-it-all monologues are driving Pandora and her fitness-freak husband Fletcher insane. After the brother-in-law has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: it's him or me.Rich with Shriver's distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: why we overeat and whether extreme diets ever really work. It asks just how much sacrifice we'll make to save single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.
Through the character of Edgar Kellogg, ex fat kid, ex corporate lawyer and now wannabe journalist, Shriver explores the lengths you’ll go to and the things you’ll do when you are desperate to be known. It’s also important to remember, and interesting to note, when you read this that it was written in 1998, five years before her Orange Prize winner. A time capsule piece of wit, cynicism and satire. Click here to view the page for Big Brother by the same author, which is due out in hardback on 9 May 2013.
Den Alltagsarger hinter sich lassen, die Welt sehen, nachdenken - so hat sich Shepherd den Rest seines Lebens vorgestellt. Seine Frau Glynis kann ihm dabei nicht folgen - sie stellt ihn vor eine tragische Wahl. Nach ihrem mitreienden Roman "e;Liebespaarungen"e; erzahlt Lionel Shrivers neues Buch von den Wandlungen einer Ehe in schweren Zeiten. Und auch von dem Gluck, das daraus entstehen kann.
A scalpel sharp political satire from the Orange Prize winning writer of We Need to Talk about Kevin.Edgar Kellogg has always yearned to be popular. Leaving his lucrative career as a lawyer for the sexier world of journalism, he's thrilled to be offered the post of foreign correspondent in a Portuguese backwater with a home-grown terrorist movement. Barrington Saddler, the disappeared larger-than-life reporter he's been sent to replace, is exactly the outsize character Edgar longs to emulate.'The Daring Soldiers of Barba' have been blowing up the rest of the world for years in order to win independence for Barba, a province so dismal, backward and windblown that you couldn't give the rat hole away. So why, with Barrington vanished, do the terrorist incidents suddenly dry up?A droll, playful novel, The New Republic addresses weighty issues like terrorism with the deft, tongue-in-cheek touch that is vintage Shriver. It also presses the more intimate question: What makes particular people so magnetic, while the rest of us inspire a shrug? What's their secret? And in the end, who has the better life - the admired, or the admirer?
Acclaimed author Lionel Shriverauthor of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That, The Post-Birthday World, and the vivid psychological novel We Need to Talk About Kevin, now a major motion pictureprobes the mystery of charisma in a razor-sharp new novel that teases out the intimate relationship between terrorism and cults of personality, explores what makes certain people so magnetic, and reveals the deep frustrations of feeling overshadowed by a life-of-the-party who may not even be present.Shriver is a master of the misanthrope. . . . [A] viciously smart writer. Time
Eva never really wanted to be a motherand certainly not the mother of a boy who ends up murdering seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevins horrific rampage, in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
Eva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who tried to befriend him. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her absent husband, Franklyn. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
The extraordinary new novel from the Orange Prize winning author of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'. What do you pack for the rest of your life?Shepherd Knacker is bored with his humdrum existence. He's sold his successful handy-man business for a million dollars and is now ready to embark on his 'Afterlife' - a one way ticket to a small island off the coast of Africa. He tries to convince his wife Glynis to come with him, but she laughs off the idea as preposterous.There's no way she'll let Shepherd uproot the family to some far-flung African island. When Glynis is diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer, Shepherd's dreams of an exotic adventure are firmly put on hold. He devotes himself to caring for his sick wife, watching her fade before his eyes. Shepherd's best friend Jackson knows all too well about illness. His sixteen year old daughter has spent her life dosed up on every treatment going while he and his wife Carol feed their youngest daughter sugar pills so she won't feel left out. But then Jackson undergoes a medical procedure of his own which has devastating consequences... So Much For That is a deeply affecting novel, told with Lionel Shriver's trademark originality, intelligence and acute perception of the human condition.
Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005Lionel Shriver tells a compelling, absorbing, and resonant story while framing these horrifying tableaux of teenage carnage as metaphors for the larger tragedy - the tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose. This title is also available as an Audiobook, in either CD or cassette format.
Shep Knacker has long saved for The Afterlife: an idyllic retreat to the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Traffic jams on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will be replaced with talking, thinking, seeing, and beingand enough sleep. When he sells his business for a cool million dollars, his dream finally seems within reach. Yet his wife Glynis has concocted endless excuses why its never the right time to go. Weary of working as a peon for the jerk who bought his company, Shep announces hes leaving for a Tanzanian island, with or without her.Just returned from a doctors appointment, Glynis has some news of her own: Shep cant go anywhere because she desperately needs his health insurance. But their policy only partially covers the staggering bills for her treatments, and Sheps nest egg for The Afterlife soon cracks under the strain.So Much for That follows the profound transformation of a marriage, and Shriver delivers a compelling novel that presses the question: how much is one life worth?
Beautiful and charismatic, nineteen-year-old Checker Secretti is the most gifted and original drummer that the club-goers of Astoria, Queens, have ever heard. When he plays, conundrums seem to solve themselves, brilliant thoughts spring to mind, and couples fall in love. The members of his band, The Derailleurs, are passionately devoted to their guiding spirit, as are all who fall under Checkers spell. But when another drummer, Eaton Striker, hears the prodigy play, he is pulled inexorably into Checkers orbit by a powerful combination of envy and admiration. Soon The Derailleurs, too, are torn apart by latent jealousies that Eaton does his utmost to bring alive. A bittersweet, graceful, poetic, yet clear-sighted vision....A tale about good and evil, and about the promise and pain of being nineteen. Cleveland Plain Dealer More compelling even than the plot turns are Shrivers insights into human nature....Checker and The Derailleurs, like its beguiling protagonist, is hard to forget. People
Still unattached and childless at fifty-nine, world-renowned anthropologist Gray Kaiser is seemingly invincible and untouchable. Returning to make a documentary at the site of her first great triumph in Kenya, she is accompanied by her faithful middle-aged assistant, Errol McEchern, who has loved her for years in silence. When sexy young graduate assistant Raphael Sarasola arrives on the scene, Gray is captivated and falls hopelessly in love before an amazed and injured Errols eyes. As he follows the progress of their affair with jealous fascination, Errol watches helplessly from the sidelines as a proud and fierce woman is reduced to miserable dependence through subtle, cruel, and calculating manipulation. Exotic and inventive. . . . It is hard not to admire the breadth and consistency of Lionel Shrivers inventiveness and the exuberance of her imagination. New York Times Book ReviewLionel Shriver is a vastly talented writer. . . . This book deserves to be read. Kansas City Star
The new novel from the Orange Prize winning author of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'.It all hinges on one kiss. Whether Irena McGovern does or does not lean in to a specific pair of lips in London will determine whether she stays with her disciplined, intellectual partner Lawrence or runs off with Ramsey, a hard-living snooker player. Using a parallel universe structure, we follow Irina's life as it unfolds under the influence of two drastically different men. Lawrence is Irena's partner of nearly ten years. Ramsey is the ex-husband of a sometime friend, a once-a-year acquaintance to whom Irena has never paid a great deal of attention. Where Lawrence is supportive and devoted; Ramsey is flighty and spontaneous. Lawrence is emotionally withdrawn to the point of repression; Ramsey is fiery and passionate, but volatile. The contrasts between the two men have ramifications for Irena's relationships with friends and family, for her career as an illustrator, and more importantly, for the texture of her daily life.This love is about trade-offs. Both men in Irena's dual future are worthy of her affection but deeply flawed. The answer is that there is no perfect answer: one of the things that draws us to our mates is what is wrong with them. The Post-Birthday World is written with all the subtlety, perceptiveness and drama that made We Need to Talk About Kevin an international bestseller.
Tennis has been Willy Novinskys one love ever since she first picked up a racquet at the age of four. A middle-ranked pro at twenty-three, shes met her match in Eric Oberdorf, a low-ranked, untested Princeton grad who also intends to make his mark on the international tennis circuit. Eric becomes Willys first passion off the court, and eventually they marry. But while wedded life begins well, full-tilt competition soon puts a strain on their relationship and an unexpected accident sends driven and gifted Willy sliding irrevocably toward resentment, tragedy, and despair. From acclaimed author Lionel Shriver comes a brilliant and unflinching novel about the devastating cost of prizing achievement over love.
Following the death of her worthy liberal parents, Corlis McCrea moves back into her family's grand Reconstruction mansion in North Carolina, willed to all three siblings. Her timid younger brother has never left home. When her bullying black-sheep older brother moves into "e;his"e; house as well, it's war. Each heir wants the house. Yet to buy the other out, two siblings must team against one. Just as in girlhood, Corlis is torn between allying with the decent but fearful youngest and the iconoclastic eldest, who covets his legacy to destroy it. A Perfectly Good Family is a stunning examination of inheritance, literal and psychological: what we take from our parents, what we discard, and what we are stuck with, like it or not.
Eleanor Merritt, a do-gooding American family-planning worker, was drawn to Kenya to improve the lot of the poor. Unnervingly, she finds herself falling in love with the beguiling Calvin Piper despite, or perhaps because of, his misanthropic theories about population control and the future of the human race. Surely, Calvin whispers seductively in Eleanors ear, if the poor are a responsibility they are also an imposition. Set against the vivid backdrop of shambolic modern-day Africa a continent now primarily populated with wildlife of the two-legged sort Lionel Shrivers Game Control is a wry, grimly comic tale of bad ideas and good intentions. With a deft, droll touch, Shriver highlights the hypocrisy of lofty intellectuals who would save humanity but who dont like people. Shriver steers her plot through some truly outrageous arguments. But her work is all the more valuable for its flagrant defiance of political correctness...The controversy that consumes [the story] is compelling. The Times (London)A sardonic, sexy, salutary novel about, of all things, population control. New Scientist
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