Big Brother by Lionel Shriver

Pandora has looked up to her older brother Edison since they were children. Now she revels in the anonymity of her suburban Iowa life, while her brother basks in the limelight as a New York jazz musician. But when Edison arrives in Iowa, suddenly in need of a place to stay, Pandora literally doesn't recognize him. The once slim, hip pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened?

With Shriver's distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother asks: just how much should you sacrifice for someone who refuses to be saved?

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‘A surprising sledgehammer of a novel’ The Times

‘Shriver is brilliant on the novel shock that is hunger… glorious, fearless, almost fanatically hard-working prose’ Guardian

‘Lionel Shriver's Big Brother has the muscle to overpower its readers. It is a conversation piece of impressive heft’ New York Times

‘Shriver is wonderful at the things she is always wonderful at. Pace and plot… . Psychology’ Independent

‘The latest compelling, humane and bleakly comic novel from the author of We Need to Talk about Kevin’ Evening Standard

‘Her best work… presents characters so fully formed that they inhabit her ideas rather than trumpet them’ New Republic