The Post-Birthday World
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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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Author Extras
Reading Guides:
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Critical Praise for
The Post-Birthday World
"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 Shriver’s novel fits."
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Entertainment Weekly
"Shriver’s an extraordinary writer. Her perceptiveness of male-female relationships is unsettling, dangerous, familiar and voyeuristic. [The Post-Birthday World is] impossible to put down."
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Daily Telegraph (Australia
"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."
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Mail on Sunday
"Hugely entertaining…tackles the dueling human needs for passion and security with fierce, witty honesty."
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Vogue
"Original and involving...convincing and beautifully told. Highly recommended."
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Library Journal
"Daring [and] dazzling."
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More Magazine
"Shriver writes with elegance and a loaded intensity...she is a brilliant, witty storyteller and the book is utterly compelling."
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Weekend Australian
"[A] tour de force in literary structure and mastery of language...engrossing."
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Sunday Telegraph (Australia)
"Provocative...stunningly intense."
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New York Daily News
"Provocative….The Post-Birthday World is…as unflinching as they come."
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New York Times
"...unique..."
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South-East Advertiser (Australia)
"Witty, formidably bright author…Lively parts…"
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Denver Rocky Mountain News
"Shriver has a gift for creating real and complicated characters and putting them in less-than-simple situations…Highly engrossing novel…"
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San Francisco Chronicle
"...hot..."
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Time magazine
"...candid..."
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Entertainment Weekly
"...fascinating..."
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Christian Science Monitor
"Shriver writes with much intelligence and wryness....The twofold nature of the plot...makes for enlightening reading."
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Irish Times
"The Post-Birthday World is a...radical book."
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The Scotsman
"This is a compulsive, clever, wise and witty novel."
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The Times (London)
"Compelling...ingenious...inspired."
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The Evening Standard (London)
"...enjoyable..."
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Sunday Times (London)
"Shriver is very obviously a perceptive observer and clever chronicler of the human condition, in all its messy, unresolved glory."
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The Nelson Mail (New Zealand)
"Shriver is a terrific, intelligent writer."
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Bookseller (London)
"Ingenious...delightful...[Shriver] has produced a novel that’s equal parts entertainment and psychological massage."
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Philadelphia Inquirer
"Best novel of ‘07."
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Entertainment Weekly
Reader Reviews from First Look
"'It is never too late to be what you might have been,' wrote George Eliot. Lionel Shriver disagreed and wrote The Post-Birthday Worl. Irina's choices made within lives of dysfunctional relationships make wonderful stories of ourselves as we choose, we win some, and we lose some in the process of living out those choices. These post-birthday worlds are finely crafted with dialogue cleverly inserted in one mouth here and another mouth there; with details or lack of them, like mobile phones, that also tell the stories; with redemption—'lethal redemption'—for Irina and Ramsey in his final battle; with insights into love and loving; and with the finality of the words, 'Timing is everything.'"
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Linda (Rockledge, DE)
"'It is never too late to be what you might have been,' wrote George Eliot. Lionel Shriver disagreed and wrote The Post-Birthday Worl. Irina's choices made within lives of dysfunctional relationships make wonderful stories of ourselves as we choose, we win some, and we lose some in the process of living out those choices. These post-birthday worlds are finely crafted with dialogue cleverly inserted in one mouth here and another mouth there; with details or lack of them, like mobile phones, that also tell the stories; with redemption—'lethal redemption'—for Irina and Ramsey in his final battle; with insights into love and loving; and with the finality of the words, 'Timing is everything.'"
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Linda (Rockledge, DE)
"Reminding me of one of my all time favorite movies (Sliding Doors) The Post-Birthday World is really two novels. Chapter by chapter the reader is taken down two very different—or are they?—paths. What if? Is the grass greener? Is on path really better than the other or just different?"
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Shelly (Murrieta, CA)
"Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World focuses on the question of personal choice and the consequences that result. Irina McGovern lives two possible permutations of her life, branching from the defining moment when she must choose whether or not to kiss her lover's friend. From that central point, the narrative takes two paths, with parallel chapters chronicling the outcome of each choice. Shriver cleverly echoes each story in the other, often using the same phrase in both chapters, but in different contexts. While the novel could have used the central concept as a simple morality tale, Shriver allows the very real ambiguities of our choices to reverberate through the story. Is Irina 'good' when she resists the affair, and 'bad' when she leaves her dull but kind lover? In Shriver's world, both choices lead to positive and negative outcomes, and either could be viewed as the 'right' choice. Shriver creates a strong story that will keep the reader thinking long after the last page is turned."
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Rudi (Aurora, IL)
"This book was such an amazing read. Reading it was like sitting in a coffee-shop with your best friend as she explains to you what is going on with her life. Should she choose this guy? Should she choose the other guy? Well which one makes her knees weak? Which one would make the best husband. Such an amazing read. I couldn't put it down, and I have passed it to my best friend. As of this morning she was 1/2 way finished and stayed up until 2 this morning reading. Very honest book... and so true to life."
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Megan (Acworth, GA)
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