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The Post-Birthday World Paperback – 1 Apr 2008

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Lionel Shriver (Author)
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Lionel Shriver (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars 124 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Paperback: 608 pages
  • Publisher: Harper; Cover Worn edition (1 April 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0007245149
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007245147
  • Product Dimensions: 13 x 3.3 x 19.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 170,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

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.’
Saturday 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 Lionel Shriver’s forthcoming work 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

About the Author

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. Earlier books include Double Fault, A Perfectly Good Family, and Checker and the Derailleurs. Her novels have been translated into twenty-five different languages. Her journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. She lives in London.

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsNot Kevin - and all the better for it
By Ms. C. M. Bozic on 9 Jun. 2008
Format: Paperback
First things first - this book isn't a sequel to We Need to Talk About Kevin. A fairly obvious point to make, but one that really does need making. Because this seems to be the expectation of many reviews that I have read. Certainly, Kevin is an amazing and poignant book, and if you haven't read it yet, then where the hell have you been? However, as a writer, Shriver has the ability to write about a wide and varied range of subject matter. This is what good writers do. If you really want to learn more on high school massacres, then rent out Bowling for Columbine.

So, if you can get Kevin out of your head for five minutes, then please turn your attention to The Post-birthday World. And this is one novel that really is deserving of your attention. In the first chapter, Irina is faced with a life changing choice: does she stick with her decent, reliable yet slightly dull long-term partner Lawrence, or does she give it all up for a life of passion and unpredictability with hard living and exciting snooker player Ramsey? The book then branches into two; in alternate chapters it shows what happens when Irina leaves Lawrence, and what happens when she stays.

The result is an entrancing read. Now, I'll be the first to admit that snooker is not the sexiest of sports. But, as with Shriver's other sports novel Double Fault, it's almost not what Shriver writes about but the way she writes about it. On paper, her subject content sounds fairly dull; snooker, middle age people falling in love, the politics of Northern Ireland. And yet she still manages to intrigue and draw the reader in, and to make them care. Plus, anyone who is able to take the dull relation of the sports world and make it sound interesting and even a little bit sexy will always get my admiration.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsFor anyone who has ever wondered 'what if' in a relationship
By Youdontownme VINE VOICE on 15 Oct. 2007
Format: Hardcover
Before you spend time reading my review instead of the wonderful "The Post-Birthday world", let me tell you at the start - it's fantastic and you must rush out straight away to buy a copy. Then clear your diary till you've finished it!

The writing is accomplished, the story is compelling, but it is all the little asides, the philosophising about life that for me really takes Shriver's work out of the realm of the ordinary. Again and again while reading this book I was astounded at how she seemed to have written down - very eloquently - thoughts that have been jumbling about in my head for years. Some passages were so personally relevant to me, I felt she must have got inside my head somehow. Perhaps it's just that the theme she expounds upon is universal and perhaps many readers will feel the same way I did.

The story centres about Irina. She has been in a long-term relationship with stable, good-but-boring guy Lawrence. While Lawrence is away one night, she ends up going out for dinner with Ramsey the ex-husband of a former friend. Ramsey is a dapper, sexy, famous snooker player. They have a great night, end up going back to his house and at the end of the first chapter we find them just about to kiss.

Chapter two begins the story of what happened after the kiss. Subsequently we find there is a second chapter two which starts in a world where the kiss did not happen. The book proceeds in this fashion - two of each chapter showing what happens in each possible world.

We've all been there - wondering what would have happened if I left/didn't leave a certain partner. Would my life have been better if I opted for sexy rather than stable? Should I have abandoned security and gone for the dangerous option?Read more ›
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1.0 out of 5 starsShockingly bad
By Amazon Customer on 17 Jun. 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I bought this because I really enjoyed Lionel Shriver's other novels, so not sure how she could produce something this bad. I took this book on holiday and couldn't even bear to read it to the end while sat on a sunlounger with nothing else to do. From the vapid, heroine to the ungengaging storyline (I honestly couldn't have cared less what she did with her love life) this was awful. But the most gratingly horrible thing by far was the shocking American attempt at Ramsey the snooker player's English vernacular, which was a confusing mix of Dick Van Dyke cockney and a parody of Northern colloquialisms as imagined by a patronising American academic. I don't think anybody in the North speaks like this. Or England. Or the world. And nobody quotes Snooker Loopy quite so often, and without irony. Maybe I am doing this book an injustice and it had a fantastic ending. But I am happy never to find out.
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4.0 out of 5 starsOne thing spoils it
By Sue on 29 May 2007
Format: Hardcover
I loved "Kevin" and "Double Fault" so I was eager for this to come out. I am halfway through it, and thoroughly enjoying the story. HOWEVER..... (and I see other readers have commented on this) Americans should not try to "write" in a British accent. I don't care how long they've lived here. The scenes with Ramsey in have dialogue that is toe-curlingly bad, and which makes me cringe as much as Dick Van Dyke's "cockney" accent in Mary Poppins. I don't know why Shriver felt the need to do it, but cor blimey guv'nor, I 'ope she don't do it again, like.
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3.0 out of 5 starsWe Need To Talk About Originality
By Amazon Customer on 27 Nov. 2008
Format: Paperback
I'm still having slightly mixed feelings about this book. Upon completion I dropped it onto my coffee table and muttered "What a disappointment" before grumping off to start something new. However, it was a disappointment in comparison to "We Need To Talk About Kevin", a book which I rather unfairly expected Shriver to match. It was possibly due to the blurbs all over the cover about how it was even better.

Basically, it's not a one star book. Shriver's writing is, as ever, fantastic. A lot of people dislike her "wordiness", but she tends to be quite flowing and easy to read. With "Kevin" it combined to make a gripping read. In "Birthday" it plods along quite well, but didn't seem capable of holding my attention. However, I don't think I could say the book was badly written, quite the opposite. It was enjoyable enough and it could hold my attention if read in a certain way. In "Birthday" you really need to read both versions of each chapter in the same sitting. If you do that then the differences between the two can be appreciated, and it is quite engaging that way. However, the same scenario being repeated can become a little unrelenting.

However, the book is definitely not five star material for me. No matter how high the quality of writing, it just didn't work. The concept was not the much - hyped original plot that it seemed to believe itself to be. It was Sliding Doors with Dick Van Dyke. The characters weren't likeable or, more concerningly, the same character. Irina magically changed in personality, as did Lawrence. The second chapter in particular irked all the way through. Lawrence's character was totally different in the two chapters, with the only possible cause of the change being that Irina was moody in one version and wasn't in the other.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsThe decisions we take

Some books just seem to grip hold of you and not let go. Thus it was with this book and me. I have not read " Kevin". Read more

Published 3 months ago by UMTdoc
2.0 out of 5 starsDepressing

Couldn't really recommend this as it's a bit depressing. Not that enthralling, and the moral seems to be, whichever relationship choice you make, your life is going to be c**p. Read more

Published 3 months ago by RDM
2.0 out of 5 starsAnd me eyes stopped at page 147 and cried "brain - no more!"

Lionel Shriver is without doubt a skilled writer. But this was deadly dull, like a mild toothache on a long weekend. Read more

Published 5 months ago by "Belgo Geordie"
2.0 out of 5 starsBoring so far

I have now finished this book and I maintain my 2-star review. It is boring all the way through and the ending is just as boring. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Maureen Robson
4.0 out of 5 starsUncomfortable Truths

I was on a river cruise and went to the boat’s library to find a book to read. I was happy to spot a book by Lionel Shriver, having read two of her books already. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Minijax
3.0 out of 5 starsGood plot, slow execution

This book had such promise and reminded me of a modern day sliding doors... I.e. the consequence of action. In reality it was a bit of a slow read and predictable in parts. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Whizzy
3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting concept, but overwritten

Lionel Shriver is such a frustrating author. Rarely do I read someone who combines such utter brilliance with such a big fundamental flaw in her writing. Read more

Published 13 months ago by BookWorm
5.0 out of 5 starsBeautifully written

beautifully written, great story, broadened up my vocabulary - thank goodness for the dictionary function on the kindle!

Published 13 months ago by Emma
2.0 out of 5 starsTwo Stars

Didn't like the quirky writing style

Published 14 months ago by david southam
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of my best reads of 2015

Brilliant book. Excellent characterisation, plot where you can't tell the ending until the end. Nice parallel "Sliding Doors" type plot. Read more

Published 15 months ago by J. Macfarlane

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