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The Post-Birthday World

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About this listen

From the Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, this is the novel Lionel Shriver wrote directly afterwards. The Post-Birthday World is an unflinching account of the choices that unfold before us and what our decisions really mean.

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 An intellectual and fellow American, Lawrence is clever and supportive, but rigid and emotionally withdrawn.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, undereducated, and prone to pick arguments. Their contrasting characters will colour her other relationships, her career, and the texture of her daily life.

If love is always about trade-offs—if every romantic prospect is flawed—how can we ever know whom to choose?

 City Life Contemporary Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Romance Urban Women's Fiction

Critic reviews

Praise for The Post-Birthday World:

‘Those of us who rave about the dash and dare of Lionel Shriver’s fiction can rejoice that The Post-Birthday World, a ‘Sliding Doors’-style joint tale of alternative loves and lives, will garner the attention she always deserves’
Independent

‘A compelling survey of the competing merits of security vs.desire.’
Guardian

‘Shriver gives us another passionate novel…Like Sliding Doors, the tale splits into two, following the dramatic turns of each choice. Brilliant’
Cosmopolitan

‘It's another domestic drama with a compelling twist…the power struggle between the sexes is spot-on. Shriver chalks her narrative cue with relish and, once the story gets underway, it's hard to take your eyes off the green baize’
Tatler

‘The Post-Birthday World’ is about the dilemmas of love – a must if you were gripped by ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’’
Harper’s Bazaar

‘perceptive and highly original’
Closer
All stars
Most relevant
What a great read (listen). I always enjoy this author's dry, unflashy style, and this book is one of her best.
The reader was excellent too.

PARALLEL UNIVERSES

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I want to give the performance ten stars - "gobsmackin', innit," as Ramsey Acton would say. Helen Johns not only gets all the languages and accents (American English, British English, South London, Russian, English with a Russian accent, etc.) just right, but each character has their own distinct, instantly recognisable voice, and they frequently use different pronunciations for the same word (language and identity are an important theme of the book). The deadpan delivery of Ramsey's countless fantastic lines alone are worth the listen (Irena: "I'm still waiting for my apology!" Ramsey: "A bird could go grey waiting for the likes of that.").

My quibble with the story is that the "parallel universe" format, while utterly ingenious and brilliantly executed, can get a bit tiresome. I caught myself trying to predict when and how scenes would be repeated, and some of them felt a bit contrived. Having said that, I'm probably overly critical because I'm used to Lionel Shriver's genius - had the book been written by anyone else I'd have been too awe-struck to find fault with it.

Do listen to this! Whether you hate or love the characters, you'll want to start over at the end because you'll miss them so much.

Brilliant performance of a fantastic book

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I found this original, even though it was a story about love. Many of these written before! Enjoyed the alternative narratives. Couldn’t predict what would happen next. Beautifully written. Fantastic narrator.

Original, beautiful, gripping

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A story that stimulated profound reflection on own life and loves . . . .

Incredibly thought provoking

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Enjoyable and well written. Nevertheless some authorial attitudes refuse to blend seamlessly into the novel.

A thoughtful either/or

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