Big Brother
About this audiobook
‘A gutsy, heartfelt novel’ Sunday Times
‘[Shriver’s] best novel yet’ Independent on Sunday
‘A surprising sledgehammer of a novel’ The Times
‘Shriver is brilliant on the novel shock that is hunger... glorious, fearless, almost fanatically hard-working prose’ Guardian
‘Lionel Shriver's Big Brother has the muscle to overpower its readers. It is a conversation piece of impressive heft’ New York Times
‘Shriver is wonderful at the things she is always wonderful at. Pace and plot. . . . Psychology’ Independent
‘The latest compelling, humane and bleakly comic novel from the author of We Need to Talk about Kevin’ Evening Standard
‘Her best work... presents characters so fully formed that they inhabit her ideas rather than trumpet them’ New Republic
When Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at her local Iowa airport, she literally doesn’t recognize him. The once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened?
Soon Edison’s slovenly habits, appalling diet, and know-it-all monologues are driving Pandora and her fitness-freak husband Fletcher insane. After the brother-in-law has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: it’s him or me.
Rich with Shriver’s distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: why we overeat and whether extreme diets ever really work. It asks just how much sacrifice we’ll make to save single members of our families, and whether it’s ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.
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, 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. She lives in London and Brooklyn, New York.
