The Post-Birthday World
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4.6 • 7 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the Orange Prize-winning author of WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN comes the new novel everyone will be talking about.
It all hinges on one kiss. Whether Irina McGovern does or does not lean in to a particular pair of lips in London will determine whether she stays with the disciplined intellectual Lawrence, her partner of nearly ten years, or runs off with Ramsey, a hard-living snooker player. Shriver's playful parallel-universe structure allows Irina's departing futures to unfold side-by-side under the influence of two drastically different men. Where Lawrence is supportive if repressed, Ramsey is volatile and spontaneous. these many contrasts have ramifications for Irina's relationships with friends and family, for her career as an illustrator and, most importantly, for the texture of her daily life.For Shriver, love is about trade-offs. Both men in Irina's dual destinies are worthy of her affection but - like real people - marred by severe shortcomings. Yet often the very allure of our mates is what is wrong with them, a truth conveyed with all the subtlety, perceptiveness and drama that made WE NEED tO tALK ABOUt KEVIN an international bestseller.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The smallest details of staid coupledom duel it out with a lusty alternate reality that begins when a woman passes up an opportunity to cheat on her longtime boyfriend in Shriver's latest (after the Orange Prize winning We Need to Talk About Kevin). Irina McGovern, a children's book illustrator in London, lives in comfortable familiarity with husband-in-everything-but-marriage-certificate Lawrence Trainer, and every summer the two have dinner with their friend, the professional snooker player Ramsey Acton, to celebrate Ramsey's birthday. One year, following Ramsey's divorce and while terrorism specialist "think tank wonk" Lawrence is in Sarajevo on business, Irina and Ramsey have dinner, and after cocktails and a spot of hash, Irina is tempted to kiss Ramsey. From this near-smooch, Shriver leads readers on a two-pronged narrative: one consisting of what Irina imagines would have happened if she had given in to temptation, the other showing Irina staying with Lawrence while fantasizing about Ramsey. With Jamesian patience, Shriver explores snooker tournaments and terrorism conferences, passionate lovemaking and passionless sex, and teases out her themes of ambition, self-recrimination and longing. The result is an impressive if exhausting novel.
