Big Brother

A gutsy, heartfelt novel Sunday Times [Shrivers] 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 doesnt recognize him. The once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? Soon Edisons 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: its him or me. Rich with Shrivers 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 well make to save single members of our families, and whether its ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.