検索キーワード： 著者 "Lionel Shriver" すべてのカテゴリー

For 10 years Estrin Lancaster has fled Philadelphia. From the Philippines to Berlin, she's been a traveler without a destination, an expatriate without a motherland. In each of the cities Estrin favors, she manages an apartment, a job, and a lover and never tarries past the first signs of ennui.

Ostracized as a kid, Edgar Kellogg has always yearned to be popular. A disgruntled New York corporate lawyer, he's more than ready to leave his lucrative career for the excitement and uncertainty of journalism. When he's offered the post of foreign correspondent in a Portuguese backwater that has sprouted a homegrown terrorist movement, Edgar recognizes the disappeared larger-than-life reporter he's been sent to replace, Barrington Saddler, as exactly the outsize character he longs to emulate.

Allergic to group activities of any kind, all her life Serenata has run, swum and cycled on her lonesome. But now that she's hit 60, all that physical activity has destroyed her knees. As she contemplates surgery with dread, her previously sedentary husband, Remington, recently and ignominiously redundant, chooses this precise moment to discover exercise. Which should be good for his health, right? Yet as he joins the cult of fitness that seems increasingly to consume the whole of the Western world, her once-modest husband burgeons into an unbearable narcissist.

Eleanor Merritt, a do-gooding American family-planning worker, was drawn to Kenya to improve the lot of the poor. Unnervingly, she finds herself falling in love with the beguiling Calvin Piper despite, or perhaps because of, his misanthropic theories about population control and the future of the human race. Surely, Calvin whispers seductively in Eleanor's ear, if the poor are a responsibility, they are also an imposition.

After having escaped for years to London, Corlis McCrea returns to the grand Reconstruction mansion where she grew up in North Carolina, now willed to the three grown children following the death of their parents. All three want the house. Fiscal necessity dictates that two must buy a third out. Just as she was torn as a girl, the sister must choose between her decent younger brother and the renegade eldest - the black sheep who covets his legacy in order to destroy it.

He has that thing that they'd all pay for but can't buy: onstage and off, the 19-year-old rock drummer Checker Secretti is electric. When he plays with his band, The Derailleurs, the natives of Astoria, Queens, clamour for a piece of him. But charisma comes at a price. A Salieri to Checker's Mozart, the fiercely envious fellow drummer Eaton Striker is eager to sow discord among the Derailleurs, that he might replace the exasperatingly popular goody-goody in the close-knit neighbourhood's affections.

'Love me, love my game,' says professional tennis player Willy Novinsky at 23. Tennis has been Willy's one love - until she meets the uncannily confident Eric Oberdorf. Low-ranked but untested, Eric, too, aims to make his mark on the international tennis circuit. They marry. But their life together soon grows poisoned by full-tilt competition over which spouse can rise to the top first. Willy discovers that her perfect partner may also prove her most devastating opponent.

Irina McGovern's destiny hinges on a single kiss. Whether she gives into its temptation will determine whether she stays with her reliable partner, Lawrence, or runs off with Ramsey, a hard-living snooker player. Employing a parallel universe structure, Shriver spins Irina's competing futures with two drastically different men. An intellectual and fellow American, Lawrence is clever and supportive but rigid and emotionally withdrawn. A British celebrity, Ramsey is passionate and spontaneous but jealous and undereducated.

Edgar Kellogg has always yearned to be popular. Bored rigid by his pedestrian life as a solicitor, Edgar decides to risk everything on trying to make it as a journalist. When he’s offered the post of foreign correspondent in Barba - a Portuguese backwater that has sprouted a terrorist movement - Edgar leaps at the chance to replace a blowhard called "Barrington Saddler" who’s disappeared. But the more Edgar learns about his posting, and his larger-than-life predecessor, the more he realizes that it’s not Barban terrorism he’s covering; it’s Barrington Saddler.

Uma guerra fria de escala mundial reestrutura a ordem socioeconômica do planeta, criando novos eixos de poder. A União Europeia se desfaz, a China enfim é alçada ao posto de maior potência global e o longo período de prosperidade dos Estados Unidos chega ao fim. Da noite para o dia, o dólar despenca e, além do valor, perde também seu prestígio: uma nova moeda internacional, o bancor, chega para substituí-lo.

Pandora é uma empreendedora bem-sucedida que vive em Iowa com o marido, Fletcher, um homem de temperamento irritadiço, que nunca consegue relaxar. Edison, irmão de Pandora, antes um conhecido pianista de jazz em Nova York, está completamente falido, sem ter onde morar. Contrariando o marido, Pandora envia uma passagem aérea para o irmão e abre sua casa para hospedá-lo. Depois de quatro anos sem se encontrarem, ela quase não o reconhece quando vai buscá-lo no aeroporto e se depara com um homem mais de cem quilos acima do peso.

O mundo pós-aniversário aborda o relacionamento aparentemente sólido de um casal dos EUA radicado em Londres. Ele é um disciplinado pesquisador de um instituto de estudos estratégicos; ela, uma acomodada ilustradora de livros que se depara com uma vontade incontrolável de beijar outro homem: um velho amigo do casal, impetuoso jogador de sinuca que figura no topo do ranking do esporte, um dos mais populares entre os britânicos.

Há anos um grupo separatista da região de Barba, em Portugal, explode bombas ao redor do mundo como estratégia para conseguir a sua independência. A comunidade internacional vive aterrorizada com os atentados implacáveis e imprevisíveis e a autodeterminação de Barba é um dos temas centrais e mais quentes da política mundial. A capital, Cinzeiro, abriga jornalistas de toda parte, entre eles o recém-chegado Edgar Kellogg–advogado bem-sucedido que trocou a carreira em Nova York pelo entusiasmo e a imprevisibilidade do jornalismo.

Qu'est-ce qui peut conduire un jeune garçon privilégié au pire ?À la veille de ses 16 ans, Kevin pénètre dans l'enceinte de son lycée et abat neuf personnes. Sa mère, Eva, revient sur l'enfance de son fils, ce qu'elle a fait, mal fait, pas fait... Dans une série de lettres, Eva s'interroge. Quel est ce Mal qui ronge l'Amérique ? Et eux, ses parents ? Quelle responsabilité portent-ils ? Il n'est jamais trop tard pour parler de Kevin.

Une réflexion sur notre rapport à la vieillesse et sur l'art délicat de préparer sa sortie. Ils l'ont décidé depuis longtemps. Pour ne pas disparaître dans l'indignité, la sénilité, la misère d'un système de santé défaillant, Kay et Cyril mettront fin à leur vie le jour de leurs 80 ans – ensemble. Depuis lors, la petite pilule attend sur les étagères du frigo, dans une boîte à savon. Mais l'échéance approchant, le vieux couple ne voit plus la chose du même œil. Tandis que la date fatidique approche, douze fins potentielles s'ouvrent à eux. Douze options possibles. À prendre. Ou à laisser.