`Shriver's intelligence, mordant humour and vicious leaps of imagination all combine to make this a novel that is as unsettling as it is entertaining'
FINANCIAL TIMES The brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin.
This is a frightening, fascinating, scabrously funny glimpse into the decline that may await the United States all too soon, from the pen of perhaps the most consistently perceptive and topical author of our times..
This is not science fiction.
Perhaps only Florence's oddball teenage son Willing, an economics autodidact, can save this formerly august American Family from the streets.
As their father Carter fumes at having to care for his demented stepmother now that a nursing home is too expensive, his sister Nollie, an expat author, returns from abroad at 73 to a country that's unrecognizable.
Recently affluent Avery is petulant that she can't buy olive oil, while her sister Florence is forced to absorb strays into her increasingly cramped household.
Their inheritance turned to ash, each Family member must contend with disappointment, but also - as the effects of the downturn start to hit - the challenge of sheer survival.
A bloodless world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families.
Under siege from an upstart international currency, the dollar is in meltdown.
Yet America's soaring national debt has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid.
The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-year-old patriarch dies.
It is 2029. `Shriver's intelligence, mordant humour and vicious leaps of imagination all combine to make this a novel that is as unsettling as it is entertaining'
FINANCIAL TIMES The brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin
