Synopses & Reviews
In this eagerly awaited new novel, Lionel Shriver, the Orange Prize-winning author of the international bestseller
We Need to Talk About Kevin, delivers an imaginative and entertaining look at the implications, large and small, of whom we choose to love. Using a playful parallel-universe structure,
The Post-Birthday World follows one woman's future as it unfolds under the influence of two drastically different men.
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. The decision to give in to temptation will have consequences for her career, her relationships with family and friends, and perhaps most importantly the texture of her daily life.
Hinging on a single kiss, this enchanting work of fiction depicts Irina's alternating futures with two men temperamentally worlds apart yet equally honorable. With which true love Irina is better off is neither obvious nor easy to determine, but Shriver's exploration of the two destinies is memorable and gripping. Poignant and deeply honest, written with the subtlety and wit that are the hallmarks of Shriver's work, The Post-Birthday World appeals to the what-if in us all.
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“...candid...” Entertainment Weekly
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“This is a compulsive, clever, wise and witty novel.” The Times (London)
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“Extraordinary...Before it was co-opted and trivialized by chick lit, romantic love was a subject that writers from Flaubert to Tolstoy deemed worthy of artistic and moral scrutiny. This is the tradition into which Shrivers novel fits.” Entertainment Weekly
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“Provocative...stunningly intense.” New York Daily News
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“...hot...” Time magazine
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“...enjoyable...” Sunday Times (London)
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“Shriver is a terrific, intelligent writer.” Bookseller (London)
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“Daring [and] dazzling.” More Magazine
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“Ingenious....there is an impressive freshness in her treatment. The writing is intelligent, the characterisation thoughtful, the insights into love, sex and snooker sharp. After her acclaimed 2003 novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Shriver confirms her reputation as an original talent.” Mail on Sunday
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“...unique...” South-East Advertiser (Australia)
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“[A] tour de force in literary structure and mastery of language...engrossing.” Sunday Telegraph (Australia)
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“Shriver has a gift for creating real and complicated characters and putting them in less-than-simple situations…Highly engrossing novel…” San Francisco Chronicle
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“...fascinating...” Christian Science Monitor
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“Compelling...ingenious...inspired.” The Evening Standard (London)
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“Original and involving...convincing and beautifully told. Highly recommended.” Library Journal
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“Shrivers an extraordinary writer. Her perceptiveness of male-female relationships is unsettling, dangerous, familiar and voyeuristic. [The Post-Birthday World is] impossible to put down.” Daily Telegraph (Australia
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“Provocative….The Post-Birthday World is…as unflinching as they come.” New York Times
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“Shriver is very obviously a perceptive observer and clever chronicler of the human condition, in all its messy, unresolved glory.” The Nelson Mail (New Zealand)
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“Ingenious...delightful...[Shriver] has produced a novel thats equal parts entertainment and psychological massage.” Philadelphia Inquirer
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“Hugely entertaining…tackles the dueling human needs for passion and security with fierce, witty honesty.” Vogue
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“Best novel of ‘07.” Entertainment Weekly
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“The Post-Birthday World is a...radical book.” The Scotsman
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“Witty, formidably bright author…Lively parts…” Denver Rocky Mountain News
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“Shriver writes with elegance and a loaded intensity...she is a brilliant, witty storyteller and the book is utterly compelling.” Weekend Australian
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“Shriver writes with much intelligence and wryness....The twofold nature of the plot...makes for enlightening reading.” Irish Times
Synopsis
"Complex and nervy, Shriver's clever meditation will intrigue anyone who has ever wondered how things might have turned out had they followed, or ignored, a life-changing impulse." -- People (Critic's Choice)
This dazzling novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin takes a psychological and deeply human look at love and volition
Does the course of life hinge on a single kiss? Whether the American expatriate Irena McGovern does or doesn't lean into a certain pair of lips in London will determine whether she stays with her smart, disciplined, intellectual American partner Lawrence, or runs off with Ramsey--a wild, exuberant British snooker star the couple has known for years. Employing a parallel-universe structure, Shriver follows Irena's life as it unfolds under the influence of two drastically different men.
In a tour de force that, remarkably, has no villains, Shriver explores the implications, both large and small, of our choice of mate--a subject of timeless, universal fascination for both sexes.
About the Author
Lionel Shriver's novels include the New York Timesbestseller The Post-Birthday Worldand the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, which won the 2005 Orange Prize and has now sold over a million copies worldwide. Earlier books include Double Fault, A Perfectly Good Family, and Checker and the Derailleurs. Her novels have been translated into twenty-five languages. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. She lives in London.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Lionel Shriver