Big Brother
Published on 2. January 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-0-00-727110-8 (ISBN)
Description
'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.
'[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.
Reviews / Votes
'Glorious, fearless ... possibly her very best' OBSERVER'Her best novel yet' INDEPENDENT
'A brilliant writer. She has a strong, clear and strangely seductive voice. The characters are strong . . . so moving it will make you want to gasp or cry' SUNDAY TIMES
'Piercingly bleak in tone and formally original in execution . . . reminding us, not a moment too soon, that Shriver is a novelist as well as a polemicist' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'From the start I was gripped. Once again, Shriver has provided much food for thought' DAILY MAIL
'Lionel Shriver's Big Brother has the muscle to overpower its readers. It is a conversation piece of impressive heft' NEW YORK TIMES
'Big Brother finds the funny - and the pathos - in fat'
USA TODAY
'Brilliantly done' EVENING STANDARD
'Pandora is a masterly creation' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
299 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-727110-8 (9780007271108)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
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.