Lionel Shriver

La mejor tragicomedia política de nuestros tiempos. En un 2011 no del todo inconcebible, la sociedad ha abrazado la Paridad Mental, una ideología que proclama la igualdad intelectual absoluta y amenaza con redefinir la esencia misma de la inteligencia. Bajo sus nuevos postulados, palabras como listo o tonto se convierten en tabu, y combatir la discriminacion de las mentes menos favorecidas pasa a ser el caballo de batalla de una renovada lucha por los derechos civiles. Las universidades censuran las lecturas obligatorias para evitar cualquier sugerencia de superioridad o inferioridad mental, y hasta clasicos como El idiota de Dostoievski se consideran problematicos solo por lo que parecen insinuar sus titulos.Pearson Converse, profesora universitaria de Literatura, observa con creciente escepticismo esta tremenda deriva hacia la homogeneidad intelectual y la restriccion del lenguaje, y el dia que su hijo Darwin es amonestado en el colegio por tachar de estupida la camiseta de un compañero, dice basta. Con una aversion atroz a cualquier tipo de dogma desde que los testigos de Jehova marcaran su infancia, Pearson no esta dispuesta a que las nuevas tesis de la Paridad Mental aplasten el espiritu de sus hijos ni el de sus alumnos.Cuando sus controvertidas decisiones docentes y su empeño por preservar la libertad de pensamiento en un mundo que amenaza con apisonar todas las diferencias la situen en el centro de una tormenta ideologica, Pearson se refugiara en su mejor amiga, Emory, con la que puede despacharse a gusto y compartir sus ideas socialmente reprochables sobre el movimiento paritario. O eso cree Enfrentada a la censura, el ostracismo de sus colegas e incluso a la intervencion de los servicios sociales, Pearson debera encontrar la mejor estrategia para alzar su voz en una sociedad en la que la disidencia y la meritocracia intelectual se castigan como una vieja herejia.Con una prosa incisiva y su sarcasmo marca de la casa, Shriver vuelve a la carga con esta lucida e inquietante novela sobre un presente y un futuro en los que la lucha por mantener la integridad se hace mas necesaria que nunca. Una distopia divertidisima, mordaz y aterradoramente verosimil.

La mejor tragicomedia política de nuestros tiempos.En un 2011 no del todo inconcebible, la sociedad ha abrazado la Paridad Mental, una ideología que proclama la igualdad intelectual absoluta y amenaza con redefinir la esencia misma de la inteligencia. Bajo sus nuevos postulados, palabras como listo o tonto se convierten en tabu, y combatir la discriminacion de las mentes menos favorecidas pasa a ser el caballo de batalla de una renovada lucha por los derechos civiles. Las universidades censuran las lecturas obligatorias para evitar cualquier sugerencia de superioridad o inferioridad mental, y hasta clasicos como El idiota de Dostoievski se consideran problematicos solo por lo que parecen insinuar sus titulos.Pearson Converse, profesora universitaria de Literatura, observa con creciente escepticismo esta tremenda deriva hacia la homogeneidad intelectual y la restriccion del lenguaje, y el dia que su hijo Darwin es amonestado en el colegio por tachar de estupida la camiseta de un compañero, dice basta. Con una aversion atroz a cualquier tipo de dogma desde que los testigos de Jehova marcaran su infancia, Pearson no esta dispuesta a que las nuevas tesis de la Paridad Mental aplasten el espiritu de sus hijos ni el de sus alumnos.Cuando sus controvertidas decisiones docentes y su empeño por preservar la libertad de pensamiento en un mundo que amenaza con apisonar todas las diferencias la situen en el centro de una tormenta ideologica, Pearson se refugiara en su mejor amiga, Emory, con la que puede despacharse a gusto y compartir sus ideas socialmente reprochables sobre el movimiento paritario. O eso cree Enfrentada a la censura, el ostracismo de sus colegas e incluso a la intervencion de los servicios sociales, Pearson debera encontrar la mejor estrategia para alzar su voz en una sociedad en la que la disidencia y la meritocracia intelectual se castigan como una vieja herejia.Con una prosa incisiva y su sarcasmo marca de la casa, Shriver vuelve a la carga con esta lucida e inquietante novela sobre un presente y un futuro en los que la lucha por mantener la integridad se hace mas necesaria que nunca. Una distopia divertidisima, mordaz y aterradoramente verosimil.

Published to coincide with Wimbledon What price do you pay for prizing success over love? 'Love me, love my game' says twenty-three year-old Willy Novinsky. Ever since she picked up a racquet at the age of four, tennis has been Willy's one love, until the day she meets Eric Oberdorf. She's a middle-ranked professional tennis player and he's a Princeton graduate who took up playing tennis at the age of eighteen. Low-ranked but untested, Eric, too, aims to make his mark on the international tennis circuit. But, as Eric's ranking climbs, rivalry turns to resentment, and Willy risks losing everything.

La Pandora i el seu germà, l’Edison, fa quatre anys que no es veuen. Ella viu a Iowa amb en Fletcher, un home vigorós i sever, obsessionat amb l’esport i la vida sana, i es guanya molt bé la vida amb

The new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin. Pandora has looked up to her older brother Edison since they were children. Now she revels in the anonymity of her suburban Iowa life, while her brother basks in the limelight as a New York jazz musician. But when Edison arrives in Iowa, suddenly in need of a place to stay, Pandora literally doesn't recognize him. The once slim, hip pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? Soon Edison's appalling diet and know-it-all monologues are driving Pandora and her husband Fletcher insane. And it's only a matter of time before Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum, it's him or me. With Shriver's distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother not only examines why we overeat, but asks more pressingly still: just how much should you sacrifice for someone who refuses to be saved?

''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 TIMES The 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.

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 doesnt quite know what to make of it or how to get it past his fiancee. Especially as its a massive, handmade, intensely personal sculpture that theyd have to live with forever.As the argument rages about whether Jillians gift was an act of pure platonic generosity or something more insidious, battle lines are drawnCan 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.

First ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel Shriver 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'.

First ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel Shriver 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'.

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.

LIONEL SHRIVEREver since Willy Novinsky picked up a racquet at the age of four, tennis has been her one love, until the day she meets Eric Oberdorf. She's a middle-ranked professional tennis player and he's a Princeton graduate who took up playing tennis at the age of eighteen. They marry. Married life starts well but soon gives way to full-tilt competition. Front Cover

The brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin centres on three generations of The Mandible family as a fiscal crisis hits a near-future America. 'In God We Trusted' 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.

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 OPhelan 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.

Eva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not of the boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who tried to befriend him.

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 obsedees par la sante et le culte du corps. Une bombe de provocation qui prouve, s'il le fallait encore, que Lionel Shriver est une des plus fines observatrices de notre tempsUn beau matin, au petit-dejeuner, Remington fait une annonce tonitruante a son epouse Renata : cette annee, il courra un marathon. Tiens donc ? Ce sexagenaire certes encore fringant mais pour qui l'exercice s'est longtemps resume a faire les quelques pas qui le separaient de sa voiture mettrait a profit sa retraite anticipee pour se mettre enfin au sport ? Belle ambition ! D'autant plus ironique que dans le couple, le plus sportif des deux a toujours ete Renata jusqu'a ce que des problemes de genoux ne l'obligent a la sedentarite.Qu'a cela ne tienne, c'est certainement juste une passade.Sauf que contre toute attente, Remington s'accroche. Mieux, Remington y prend gout. Les week-ends sont desormais consacres a l'entrainement, sous la houlette de Bambi, la tres sexy et tres autoritaire coach. Et quand Remington commence a envisager tres serieusement de participer a un Iron Man, Renata realise que son mari, jadis debonnaire et volontiers empote, a laisse place a un etre arrogant et impitoyable. Face a cette fuite en avant sportive, leur couple resistera-t-il ?

AprésáQuatre heures..., Shriver revient avec une nouvelle bombe. Porté par une construction originale et efficace, un roman explosif sur un couple de quinquas nouant un pacte quasi-faustien pour s éviter la decheance de leurs vieux jours. Une reflexion mordante et passionnante sur notre rapport avec la vieillesse et l art delicat de se preparer a la fin.

The first essay collection from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.Testament to the fierce intelligence of a writer who wants us to think more, probe more, challenge more and who also makes it fun SUNDAY TIMESYou may disagree with Lionel Shrivers bracing journalism, but her right to spark disquiet goes to the heart of the freedom of expression issue Rachel Cooke, OBSERVERMutinous essays about modern politics and culture An independent mind and a sense of humour are dangerous things to possess. The spiky, politically incorrect novelist Lionel Shriver has them in abundance THE TIMESNovelist, 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 regularly deplores the conformity of thought and attitude that has overtaken society.Bringing together thirty-five works curated from her many columns, features, essays and op-eds for the likes of the Spectator and Guardian, speeches and reviews, and some unpublished pieces, Abominations reveals Shriver at her most iconoclastic and personal. Relentlessly sceptical, cutting and contrarian but also frequently moving and vulnerable, this collection showcases her piquant opinions on a wide range of topics, including religion, politics, illness, mortality, family and friends, tennis, gender, immigration, consumerism, health care and taxes.