Property
A Collection
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The first ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel Shriver
‘Genius’ Stylist
‘Phenomenal’ Observer
‘Brilliant’ The Times
In her first ever story collection, Lionel Shriver illuminates one of the modern age’s most enduring obsessions: property.
A woman creates a deeply personal wedding present for her best friend; a thirty-something son refuses to leave home; a middle-aged man subjugated by service to his elderly father discovers that the last place you should finally assert yourself is airport security.
This landmark publication explores the idea of "property" in both senses of the word: real estate, and stuff. Immensely readable, it showcases the biting insight that has made Lionel Shriver one of the most acclaimed authors of our time.
Reviews
‘Shriver’s intellect and talent, her political convictions and her impressive confidence are all on display … assertive, frequently funny and altogether satisfying … her confident grasp of the material and her natural gifts as a storyteller will keep you in her spell and leave you, at the end, slightly altered … persuasive and richly entertaining’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘Phenomenal… Shriver has the gift for making one instantly curious, entertained, involved and ready to move in – no matter what the property’ OBSERVER
‘Genius’ STYLIST
‘At her best, she takers the familiar and mundane and turns it into something surprising and strange’ SUNDAY EXPRESS S MAGAZINE
‘All Shriver’s stories are satisfying. I exhaled a little triumphant “Ha!” at the end of each one … Shriver is brilliant’ THE TIMES
‘Shriver remains a formidably sharp writer, one of the best we have’ EVENING STANDARD
‘Shriver is at her best here, an acerbic comedian, Dickensian in style, whose vibrant characters are best seen in dramatic action and dialogue’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Whip-smart … Crisp, conversational and convincingly true to life, Shriver’s stories are a treat’ DAILY MAIL
‘A pugnacious, brilliantly articulate, hilarious collection’ i NEWS
‘Shriver is the master of the neat twist’ DAILY EXPRESS
About the author
LIONEL SHRIVER’S novels include the National Book Award finalist So Much for That, the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World, the Sunday Times bestseller The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047, and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian and the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other publications. Her short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker and in 2014 she won the BBC National Short Story Award. She lives in London and Brooklyn, New York.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The wry and nimble novellas and stories in this collection by Shriver (We Need to Talk About Kevin) focus on how homes and objects shape the lives of those who own them. The collection, which concentrates on middle-class Brits and Americans, is bookended by two richly detailed and sardonic novellas. In the first, "The Standing Chandelier," a freelance web designer's relationship with his girlfriend is tested after his high-strung ex-girlfriend gives them a gift that dominates their house. In the concluding novella, "The Subletter," an American journalist who has been making a meager living in Belfast for years is brought to the edge of a breakdown when she has to share her apartment with an ambitious young subletter. In between, mordant tales touch down in the lives of a young American making herself at home in an African household ("Kilifi Creek"), a recent widow discovering that her late husband had done more than she thought to take care of a seemingly simple garden ("The Self-Seeding Sycamore"), and a slacker whose parents find him impossible to uproot from the household ("Domestic Terrorism"). Shriver's stories will make readers laugh when they feel they shouldn't, and the uniting theme of houses and humans works exceedingly well, turning up new wrinkles with each successive story.
