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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.
“For the last thirty-two years, you’ve not once trotted out for a run around the block. And now you tell me with a straight face that you want to run a marathon.” So begins this scathingly amusing novel that sees 64-year-old Remington - recently forced to retire early after an unsavoury employment tribunal – develop an unhealthy obsession with extreme exercise and his hideously competitive trainer, Bambi. Remington’s wife, sixty-year-old Serenata has always been a solitary exerciser (“I find large numbers of people doing the same thing in one place a little repulsive”), so the fact that her “husband had joined the mindless lookalikes of the swollen herd” comes as a shock, and an insensitive affront too, given that she was recently compelled to give up a lifetime of running after a diagnosis of osteoarthritis in both knees. Their spiteful bickering begins immediately, with neither party displaying themselves in a favourable light. Indeed, both characters are largely unlikeable, which makes their sniping all the more entertaining. Remington bemoans accusations of privilege, thus revealing said privilege: “I’m a little tired of being told how ‘privileged’ I am... How as a member of the ‘straight white patriarchy’ I have all the power. I’m supposedly so omnipotent, but I live in fear, less like a man than a mouse.” After (eventually) crossing the finish line of his first marathon, Remington signs-up for a gruelling triathlon, with his farcical persistence in spite of serious incidents and injuries making this novel both hilarious and excruciatingly cringe-worthy, albeit with an unexpectedly bittersweet upshot.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
From the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin Allergic to group activities of any kind, all her life Serenata has run, swum, and cycled - on her lonesome. But now that she's hit 60, all that physical activity has destroyed her knees. As she contemplates surgery with dread, her previously sedentary husband Remington, recently and ignominiously redundant, chooses this precise moment to discover exercise. Which should be good for his health, right? Yet as he joins the cult of fitness that seems increasingly to consume the whole of the Western world, her once-modest husband burgeons into an unbearable narcissist. Ignoring all his other obligations in the service of extreme sport, he engages a saucy, taunting personal trainer named Bambi, who treats his wife with contempt. When Remington announces his intention to compete in a legendarily gruelling triathlon, MettleMan, Serenata is sure he's going to end up injured or dead - but the stubbornness of an ageing man in Lycra is not to be underestimated. The story of an obsession, of a marriage, of a betrayal: The Motion of the Body Through Space is Lionel Shriver at her hilarious, sharp-eyed, audacious best.
The first ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel Shriver 'Genius' Stylist 'Phenomenal' Observer 'Brilliant' The Times In 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 property 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 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.
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.
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?
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
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