“The Post-Birthday World is a brilliant ‘what if?’ novel. But that barely scrapes the surface in describing Shriver’s imaginative feat. . . .It’s mad genius. . . . A tour de force.” – USA Today American children’s book illustrator Irina McGovern enjoys a secure, settled life in London with her smart, loyal, disciplined partner, Lawrence – until the night she finds herself inexplicably drawn to kissing another man, a passionate, extravagant, top-ranked snooker player. Two competing alternate futures hinge on this single kiss, as Irina’s decision – to surrender to temptation or to preserve her seemingly safe partnership with Lawrence – will have momentous consequences for her career, her friendships and familial relationships, and the texture of her daily life. “A playful, psychologically acute, and luxuriously textured meditation on the nature of love.” – The New Yorker “Outstanding. . . . Shriver, a brilliant and versatile writer, allows these competing stories to unfold organically, each a fully rounded drama, rich with irony, ambiguity, and unforeseeable human complications.” – Entertainment Weekly “[A] wonderful new novel. . . . The rewards for sticking with these five-hundred-plus pages are as delicious as one of Irina’s feasts.” – Washington Post Book World “Book clubs across the USA should be buying up stacks of Lionel Shriver’s dazzling Rubik’s Cube of a novel. . . . Even if you’re a solitary reader, file this one under Books That Will Have You Talking – to yourself.” – USA Today

The Post-Birthday World

SHRIVER, Lionel

Harper-perennial

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 being”―and 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 it’s never the right time to go. Weary of working as a peon for the jerk who bought his company, Shep announces he’s leaving for a Tanzanian island, with or without her.Just returned from a doctor’s appointment, Glynis has some news of her own: Shep can’t go anywhere because she desperately needs his health insurance. But their policy only partially covers the staggering bills for her treatments, and Shep’s 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?

So Much for That

Harper-collins Publishers

What do you pack for the rest of your life? The explosive new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin 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? Enlivened by Shriver's signature acerbity and political outrage, it's surely the funniest and most entertaining novel about illness and death one's ever likely to read.

Harperperennial

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 shambolic modern-day Africa – a continent now primarily populated with wildlife of the two-legged sort – Lionel Shriver’s 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 don’t 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

Game Control

HARPER/COLLINS

Harper

A scalpel-sharp political satire from the Orange Prize winning writer of We Need to Talk about Kevin. Ostracized as a kid, Edgar Kellogg has always yearned to be popular. A disgruntled corporate lawyer, he's more than ready to leave his lucrative career for the excitement and uncertainty of journalism. When he's offered the post of foreign correspondent in a Portuguese backwater that has sprouted a home-grown terrorist movement, Edgar recognizes the disappeared larger-than-life reporter he's been sent to replace, Barrington Saddler, as exactly the outsize character he longs to emulate. Infuriatingly, all his fellow journalists cannot stop talking about their beloved "Bear," who is no longer lighting up their work lives. Yet all is not as it appears. Os Soldados Ousados De Barba - "The Daring Soldiers of Barba"- have been blowing up the rest of the world for years in order to win independence for a province so dismal, backward and windblown that you couldn't give the rat hole away. So why, with Barrington vanished, do terrorist incidents claimed by the "SOB" 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?

The New Republic

A scalpel sharp political satire from the Orange Prize winning writer of We Need to Talk about Kevin.
‘A superbly witty political satire’ THE TIMES
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?

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

The Borough Press

MANDIBLES A FAMILY 2029-47_PB

Motion Of The Body Through Space

Motion Of The Body Through Space EXPORT

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by SHRIVER, Lionel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by SHRIVER, Lionel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by SHRIVER, Lionel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Post-Birthday World

So Much for That

So Much for That

Game Control

So Much for That

The New Republic

The New Republic

MANDIBLES A FAMILY 2029-47_PB

Motion Of The Body Through Space

Motion Of The Body Through Space EXPORT