Presenter of
the National Book Awards
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Presenter of
the National Book Awards
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Lionel Shriver's novels include the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, which won the 2005 Orange Prize and has now sold over a million copies worldwide. More about this author >
From the publisher:
Shep Knacker has long saved for “the Afterlife,” an idyllic retreat in the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Exasperated that his wife, Glynis, has concocted endless excuses why it’s never the right time to go, Shep finally announces he’s leaving for a Tanzanian island, with or without her. Yet Glynis has some news of her own: she’s deathly ill. Shep numbly puts his dream aside, while his nest egg is steadily devastated by staggering bills that their health insurance only partially covers. Astonishingly, illness not only strains their marriage but saves it.
With limitless courage and fiendish delight, Lionel Shriver tackles the existential hell that calls itself the American health care system. It’s a mark of her acumen that when death finally visits some of her characters (whether it be after reckless cosmetic surgery or the rigors of fatal disease) it comes as a blessed escape from bureaucratic tortures.
