Each year, the International Forum on the Novel in Lyon, France, invites authors to write about a “keyword” of their choice. The following texts are drawn from this year’s forum, presented by the ...
Lionel Shriver
The author of numerous novels, Lionel Shriver received the Orange Prize for We Need to Talk about Kevin (2006), which was adapted into a film by Lynne Ramsay in 2011. Shriver deploys her sarcastic verve again in Big Brother (2013; recently translated into French by Laurence Richard), the story of a successful businesswoman who reunites with her older brother, a boastful and seductive jazz prodigy, only to find him obese, unhealthy, and compulsive. Shriver astutely analyzes our neurotic relationship with food and the alarming increase in obesity in our societies.