Showing results by author "Lionel Shriver" in All Categories

The year is 2029, and nothing is as it should be. The very essence of American life, the dollar, is under attack. In a coordinated move by the rest of the world's governments, the dollar loses all its value. The American president declares that the States will default on all its loans; prices skyrocket, currency becomes essentially worthless, and we watch one family struggle to survive through it all. The Mandibles can count on their inheritance no longer, and each member must come to terms with this in their own way.

Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and 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 16th birthday. 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 estranged husband, Franklin.

In an alternative 2011, the Mental Parity movement takes hold. Americans now embrace the sacred, universal truth that there is no such thing as variable human intelligence. Because everyone is equally smart, discrimination against purportedly dumb people is ""the last great civil rights fight."" Tests, grades, and employment qualifications are all discarded. Children are expelled for saying the S-word (“stupid”) and encouraged to report parents who use it at home.

Qu'est-ce qui peut conduire un jeune garçon privilégié au pire ?À la veille de ses 16 ans, Kevin pénètre dans l'enceinte de son lycée et abat neuf personnes. Sa mère, Eva, revient sur l'enfance de son fils, ce qu'elle a fait, mal fait, pas fait... Dans une série de lettres, Eva s'interroge. Quel est ce Mal qui ronge l'Amérique ? Et eux, ses parents ? Quelle responsabilité portent-ils ? Il n'est jamais trop tard pour parler de Kevin.

Novelist, cultural observer, and social satirist Lionel Shriver is among the sharpest talents of our age. A writer who embraces “under-expressed, unpopular or downright dangerous” points of view, she filets cherished shibboleths and the conformity of thought and attitude that has overtaken us.

When her father dies, Kay Wilkinson can’t cry. Over 10 years, Alzheimer’s had steadily eroded this erudite man into a paranoid lunatic. Surely one’s own father passing should never come as such a relief. Both medical professionals, Kay and her husband Cyril have seen too many elderly patients in similar states of decay. Although healthy and vital in their early 50s, the couple fears what may lie ahead. Determined to die with dignity, Cyril makes a modest proposal.

Children's book illustrator Irina McGovern enjoys a quiet and settled life in London with her partner, fellow American expatriate Lawrence Trainer, a smart, loyal, disciplined intellectual at a prestigious think tank. To their small circle of friends, their relationship is rock solid, until the night Irina unaccountably finds herself dying to kiss another man: their old friend from South London, the stylish, extravagant, passionate top-ranking snooker player Ramsey Acton.

In Lionel Shriver's entertaining send-up of today's cult of exercise - which not only encourages better health, but now like all religions also seems to promise meaning, social superiority, and eternal life - an aging husband's sudden obsession with extreme sport makes him unbearable.

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.

When Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at the airport, she doesn't recognize him. In the four years since the siblings last saw each other, he has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? Imposing himself on Pandora's world, Edison breaks her husband Fletcher's handcrafted furniture, and entices her stepson to drop out of high school. After the brother-in-law has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It's him or me.

It all hinges on one kiss. Whether Irina 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.

The five titles shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013, administered in partnership with BookTrust. Contains: Mrs Fox by Sarah Hall read by Andrea Riseborough, Barmouth by Lisa Blower read by Rebekah Staton, Prepositions by Lionel Shriver read by Nancy Crane, Notes from the House of Spirits by Lucy Wood read by Hattie Morahan, We Are Watching Something Terrible Happening by Lavinia Greenlaw read by Claire Skinner.

Avec une plume plus incisive que jamais et un humour ravageur, Lionel Shriver livre un roman explosif sur un couple de sexagénaires en crise, dressant au passage un portrait mordant de nos sociétés obsédées par la santé et le culte du corps. Un beau matin, au petit-déjeuner, Remington fait une annonce tonitruante à son épouse Serenata : cette année, il courra un marathon. Tiens donc ?

Une réflexion sur notre rapport à la vieillesse et sur l'art délicat de préparer sa sortie. Ils l'ont décidé depuis longtemps. Pour ne pas disparaître dans l'indignité, la sénilité, la misère d'un système de santé défaillant, Kay et Cyril mettront fin à leur vie le jour de leurs 80 ans – ensemble. Depuis lors, la petite pilule attend sur les étagères du frigo, dans une boîte à savon. Mais l'échéance approchant, le vieux couple ne voit plus la chose du même œil. Tandis que la date fatidique approche, douze fins potentielles s'ouvrent à eux. Douze options possibles. À prendre. Ou à laisser.

A striking new collection of ten short stories and two novellas that explores the idea of property in every meaning of the word, from the acclaimed New York Times best-selling author of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That and the international best seller We Need to Talk About Kevin.

World-famous anthropologist Gray Kaiser has almost everything. She is brilliance, self-sufficient, and beautiful. But at 59, one thing is still missing from her life. She has never been in love. Her assistant Errol McEchern has loved her for many years, but she doesn't know.

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.

Aos 15 anos, o personagem Kevin mata 11 pessoas, entre colegas no colégio e familiares. Enquanto ele cumpre pena, a mãe Eva amarga a monstruosidade do filho. Entre culpa e solidão, ela apenas sobrevive. A vida normal se esvai no escândalo, no pagamento dos advogados, nos olhares tortos. Transposto o primeiro estágio da perplexidade, um ano e oito meses depois, ela dá início a uma correspondência com o marido, único interlocutor capaz de entender a tragédia, apesar de ausente. Cada carta é uma ode e uma desconstrução do amor.

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 "his" house as well, it's war.

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.