The Mandibles
By Lionel Shriver

Shriver's intelligence, mordant humour and vicious leaps of
imagination all combine to make this a novel that is as unsettling as it
is entertaining' FINANCIAL TIMESThe brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk about Kevin.It is 2029.The
Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when
their 97-year-old patriarch dies. Yet America's soaring national debt
has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid. Under siege from an
upstart international currency, the dollar is in meltdown. A bloodless
world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families.Their
inheritance turned to ash, each family member must contend with
disappointment, but also - as the effects of the downturn start to hit -
the challenge of sheer survival.Recently affluent Avery is petulant
that she can't buy olive oil, while her sister Florence is forced to
absorb strays into her increasingly cramped household. As their father
Carter fumes at having to care for his demented stepmother now that a
nursing home is too expensive, his sister Nollie, an expat author,
returns from abroad at 73 to a country that's unrecognizable.Perhaps
only Florence's oddball teenage son Willing, an economics autodidact,
can save this formerly august American family from the streets.This
is not science fiction. This is a frightening, fascinating, scabrously
funny glimpse into the decline that may await the United States all too
soon, from the pen of perhaps the most consistently perceptive and
topical author of our times.