Product Description

The new novel from the Orange Prize winning author of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'. 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 Irena's life as it unfolds under the influence of two drastically different men. Lawrence is Irina's partner of nearly ten years. Ramsey is the ex-husband of a sometime friend, a once-a-year acquaintance to whom Irina has never paid a great deal of attention. Where Lawrence is supportive and devoted; Ramsey is flighty and spontaneous. Lawrence is emotionally withdrawn to the point of repression; Ramsey is fiery and passionate, but volatile. The contrasts between the two men have ramifications for Irina's relationships with friends and family, for her career as an illustrator, and more importantly, for the texture of her daily life. This love is about trade-offs. Both men in Irina's dual future are worthy of her affection but deeply flawed. The answer is that there is no perfect answer: one of the things that draws us to our mates is what is wrong with them. The Post-Birthday World is written with all the subtlety, perceptiveness and drama that made We Need to Talk About Kevin an international bestseller.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1421 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Review
Praise for 'The Post-Birthday World': 'Those of us who rave about the dash and dare of Lionel Shriver's fiction can rejoice that 'The Post-Birthday World', a 'Sliding Doors'-style joint tale of alternative loves and lives, will garner the attention she always deserves.' Independent 'Shriver gives us another passionate novel!Like Sliding Doors, the tale splits into two, following the dramatic turns of each choice. Brilliant.' Cosmopolitan 'It's another domestic drama with a compelling twist!the power struggle between the sexes is spot-on. Shriver chalks her narrative cue with relish and, once the story gets underway, it's hard to take your eyes off the green baize.' Tatler "The Post-Birthday World' is Lionel Shriver's forthcoming work about the dilemmas of love - a must if you were gripped by 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'.' Harper's Bazaar Praise for Lionel Shriver and her writing: 'This is an important book!here is a fierce challenge of a novel that forces the reader to confront assumptions about love and parenting, about how and why we apportion blame, about crime and punishment, forgiveness and redemption.' Independent 'One of the most striking works of fiction to be published this year!Desperate Housewives as written by Euripides!a powerful, gripping and original meditation on evil.' New Statesman 'A fearless novel.' Daily Telegraph 'Harrowing, tense and thought-provoking.' Daily Mail 'Terribly honest...she strikes a tone of compelling intimacy. This is heavy material, but Ms Shriver tackles it with admirable panache, turning a sensational story into a troubling one.' Wall Street Journal 'A fascinating, painful meditation on motherhood-as-regret.' Time Out 'Her [Eva's] fierceness and honesty sustain the narrative; this is an impressive novel.' New York Times 'Impossible to put down...brutally honest...Who, in the end, needs to talk about Kevin? Perhaps we all do.' Boston Globe

Cosmopolitan
`Shriver gives us another passionate novel...Like Sliding Doors, the tale
splits into two, following the dramatic turns of each choice. Brilliant.'

Tatler
`It's another domestic drama with a compelling twist...the power struggle
between the sexes is spot-on. Shriver chalks her narrative cue with relish
and, once the story gets underway, it's hard to take your eyes off the
green baize.'

Customer Reviews

The best modern novel I have read in ages
I just loved this book. I agree with the reviewer who said something like clear the decks and just read this book, because when I wasn't reading it I just wanted to get back to it. I was so pleased it was 600 pages long as I just didn't want it to end.

I thought it was so well planned, beautifully written and clever. I enjoyed Lionel Shriver's deep delve into relationships. The basic concept of the book is that in life, a crossroads may just appear - and the choice you make at that crossroads can totally change the course of your life.

You really wouldn't have to be into snooker to enjoy this book - but as I am, it enhanced my enjoyment of it even more. I loved the inclusion of real life snooker players such as Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry. It made me wonder what they thought of their portrayal in this book.

One tiny reservation - the cockney dialect was rather dodgy to say the least - but I could forgive Lionel Shriver anything in this book!

The ending - understated though it was - was thought provoking. I sat for a long time after I had finished the book, just pondering the way it ended.

Thank you to Lionel Shriver for writing this book - and I hope other readers will enjoy it as much as I did.

Started well, but became tedious and flawed...
I bought this book because of Lionel Shriver's reputation, not having read "We need to talk about Kevin". It was an interesting concept to split the story into two and I was intrigued. However, several things spoilt it for me.

Firstly, as many other reviewers have so rightly commented- what on earth is going on with Ramsay's ridiculous cockney accent? Nobody in the world speaks like that. Its as if Shriver watched a few early Ealing Comedies or some Harry Enfield sketches and assumed cockneys still call each other "ducky" and say things like "I'll wager that..". If you can't "write" an accent, then give your character a different accent that you CAN do! In the final chapter (its OK, no spoilers) it mentions that Ramsay's parents are middle class and he therefore picked up the accent along the way. This is a very flimsy, glued-on sort of explanation for a badly written accent and made me think her editor made her write that as she couldn't be bothered to go back through and inject some authenticity to the dialogue. All she had to do was watch Eastenders for goodness sake! The problem with this flaw is that I then lost faith in the author, as if my suspension of disbelief was interrupted with every word Ramsay spoke. It ruined many a scene, Ducky.

After that constant irritation, I must say I didn't warm very much to Irina. After all, she lied to Lawrence when seeing Ramsay and then lied to Ramsay when seeing Lawrence. Her sense of justification is a bit overdone and the navel gazing became tedious and obsessive. The prose was otherwise excellent and raised some interesting points. Mainly that the grass isn't greener, just different and that you may not find your entire wish list of qualities in one man. It also points out that rituals and routine are lodestones which bond and comfort in a long term relationship. However, she then goes and spoils it by practically changing Lawrence's character over halfway through.

All in all, it took me so long to plough through this book with its over heavy littering of Russian phrases and Snooker-loopiness that I was relieved when it ended. I won't give it away but the ending disappointed me. It may not disappoint everyone, but it did me. Overall, an interesting read, but heavy and dark and contains Irina's every cough and spit and is about 150 pages too long!

A brilliant, moving read
Like other reviewers I wasn't sure about the "Sliding Doors" type plot device. However, I enjoyed this book immensely. Using this format allows the author to explore so many different avenues, and the two parallel story lines, with their similarities and differences, are very cleverly crafted. She seems to come to the conclusion that there are no right or wrong turns, or choices, in life, only different routes through it, and that some outcomes are inevitable whatever we decide. An extremely thought-provoking and accomplished book. Can't wait for the next one!