The Post-Birthday World - Lionel Shriver

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

It all hinges on one kiss. Whether Irina McGovern does or does not lean into a specific pair of lips one night in London will determine whether she stays with her disciplined, intellectual partner Lawrence or runs off with Ramsey, a hard-living snooker player.
Lawrence is Irina's partner of nearly ten years. The ex-husband of a former friend , Ramsey is one of those once-a-year acquaintances. Where Lawrence is supportive and devoted, Ramsey is erratic and spontaneous. Lawrence is emotionally withdrwan, Ramsey is passionate but volatile.
Using a parallel universe structure, we follow Irina's life as it unfolds under the influence of two drastically different men, colouring her relationships with family and friends, affecting her career and, most importantly, cahnging the texture of her daily life.
The story is about trade-offs. Both men in Irina's dual future are wirthy of her affection but they are also flawed. There is no perfect answer: what draws us to our mates in part is what is wrong with them.

I was disappointed with this novel, expecting great things from Lionel Shriver after the awesome "We Need To Talk About Kevin". The parallel universe theme is clever, but has been done-to-death, notably in Sliding Doors. The chapters are incredibly long, and apart from the first and last, two of each. Every detail of Irina's life is described in minute detail, and each double chapter mirrors the other very closely. Initially, I thought this a clever technique, but it quickly becomes tedious. I admit to skim reading a lot of the book, in particular the descriptions of Ramsey's snooker tournaments. Another drawback was that I didn't like many of the characters. Lawrence was a boor and Ramsey completely unconvincing, with a cringeworthy Dick Van Dyke cockney accent. I had to wonder what Irina saw in either of them.
Yet, something kept me reading, maybe the fact that the message of the novel is thought provoking..."The idea is that you don't only have one destint. ounger and younger, kids are pressed to decide what they want to do with their lives, as if everything hinges on one decision. But whichever direction you go, there are going to be upsides and downsides. You're dealing with a set of trade-offs, and not one perfect course in comparison to which all others are crap."
Very true. Indeed Irina's two lives are full of ups and downs. Ironically, she is more unhappy when she stays with Lawrence, and Lawrence is much nicer when she leaves.
Shriver's writing is a little too clever for her own good, and I feel that maybe she identifies with the intellectual Irina, to the extent that the novel could be autobiographical.
Too longwinded, and I was gald to finish this and move on.

Eye Contact- Cammie McGovern

"Compulsively addictive...heartbreaking" Daily Telegraph.

For nine years Adam has been the centre of his mother Cara's world. And, she thinks, she has been the centre of his. Until the day he disappears. When he is found in the woods behind his school, beside the body of a little girl whom Cara has never heard of , it feels as if her world has been torn apart. As Adam locks himself in silence, unable to tell his mother what he has seen, Cara's desperation to discover the truth becomes fiercer and more urgent than ever. A heartrending, haunting story of the tangled bond between a mother and her child, Eye Contact grips the mind as it engages the heart.

I adored this book. The description on the back cover in no way describes the intesity and complexity of this novel. At it's heart is a clever, twisting whodunnit murder mystery, yet it is so much more than this. Moving through different narrators, we meet not only autistic Adam, but also the charming Morgan, who, like Cara, is determined to solve the mystery for his own strangely logical reasons. If Mark Haddon gave us an insight into the autistic mind with his The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time, this novel goes further, exploring how a child with what is loosely termed special needs, interacts with the world, and the effect this has others, particularly the mother. The theme is constant throughout the book, with the mothers' of Kevin, Amelia, Morgan and Chris, as well as Cara. The question faced by every mother, irrespective of a child's disabilty, of when to protect and when to let go is confronted throughout the book. Cara's meeting with Olivia, the murdered Amelia's mother left me literally sobbing. Amelia too was on the autistic spectrum, and the similarities and differences between the two unlikely friends is devastatingly moving.
The complexities of high-school are bewildering enough without being on the autism spectrum, and McGovern demonstrates this with insight and clarity. The issue of bullying, central to the novel is dealt with candidly, the cruelties children infict upon each other presented unflinchingly.

"Grasps the complex, often cruel hierachies of childhood" Lionel Shriver, author of We Need To Talk About Kevin.

I loved the sub-plots in the novel, the skeletons in the closet involving Cara's childhood friends, Kevin and Suzette, and the deaths of Cara's parents. Cara and Suzette's reunion gave me goosepimples! I felt completley drawn in to the private world of each significant character, and read slowly, not wanting to miss a single detail. I shall be recommending this stunning novel to everyone I know.
In an author's note at the back of the book, Cammie McGovern, the mother of a nine year old autistic son, tells us what moved her to write this book:
"...I wanted to write a hopeful book- one that reaffirms what I have come to believe: that even in the presence of a devastating disorder like autism, happiness, joy, success, love and even friendships are still possible. That for my son and the countless other children coming of age with this mysterious, isolating condition, there is a place in the world for them and an important role that they will play."
Breathtaking!

"Nobody who knows an autistic cjild could fail to be moved by this fantastic thriller...Wise and moving, as well as gripping" the Times.

We Need To Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver

"Few novels leave you gasping at the final paragraph as if the breath had been knocked from your body. Such is the impact of We Need To Talk About Kevin" The Bookseller.

"A child needs your love most when he deserves it least" - Erma Bombeck.

Shortly before his 16th birthday, Kevin Khatchadourian kills seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher. He is visited in prison by his mother Eva, who, in a series of letters to her husband, narrates her account of Kevin's upbringing. Was Kevin just born bad, or were there other factors contributing to this tragedy? This "whydunnit" novel presents a harrowing study of the nature/nurture debate.
Although the subject matter is of a Columbine type high-school massacre, the main theme of the book is Eva's relationship with her son, tackling the sensitive, almost taboo, proposition that mothers can be unmoved by, and even dislike, their own children.
This book, the winner of the Orange Prize For Fiction 2005, had a profound effect on me, and I would rate it as one of the best books I have ever read. This novel makes for some harrowing reading and almost unbearable suspense.Lionel Shriver's prose is intelligent, observant and very brave, which is made all the more phenomenal by the fact that she has no children herself.
The book leaves the reader with more questions than answers, and provokes debate. A classic book-group read that will haunt long after it is finished.

"Forces the reader to confront assumptions about love and parenting, about how and why we apportion blame, about crime and punishment, forgiveness and redemption" Independent.