A Better Life - by Lionel Shriver (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In a provocative novel addressing contemporary immigration by the sharply observant Lionel Shriver, a New York family takes in a Honduran migrant-who may or may not be the innocent paragon she claims to be. Gloria Bonaventura, a divorced mother of three living with her 26-year-old son Nico in a sprawling house in Brooklyn, decides to participate in a new city program that would pay her to take in a migrant as a boarder. Liberal to the extreme, Gloria is thrilled when sweet, kind, helpful Martine arrives. But Nico is skeptical. A classic live-at-home Gen Zer with no interest in adulthood, Nico resents any interruption of his "hovercraft repose." As the months go by, Martine endears herself to both Nico's sisters, while finding her way into Gloria's heart and even, briefly, Nico's. But as Martine's disturbingly dodgy compatriots begin to show up, Nico conceives a dark twin hostile to both his mother's altruism and the "migrant crisis" in general-and turns out to be anything but a reliable narrator himself. Based loosely on a program New York City Mayor Eric Adams floated but did not initiate, A Better Life is Lionel Shriver at her best: smart, funny, and sensitive to the moral nuances of perhaps the most divisive issue of our times"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

In a provocative novel addressing contemporary immigration by the sharply observant Lionel Shriver, a New York family takes in a Honduran migrant--who may or may not be the innocent paragon she claims to be.

Gloria Bonaventura, a divorced mother of three living with her 26-year-old son Nico in a sprawling house in Brooklyn, decides to participate in a new city program that would pay her to take in a migrant as a boarder. Gloria is thrilled when sweet, kind, helpful Martine arrives. But Nico is skeptical. A classic live-at-home Gen Zer with no interest in adulthood, Nico resents any interruption of his "hovercraft repose."

As the months go by, Martine endears herself to both Nico's sisters, while finding her way into Gloria's heart and even, briefly, Nico's. But as Martine's disturbingly dodgy compatriots begin to show up, Nico conceives a dark twin hostile to both his mother's altruism and the "migrant crisis" in general--and turns out to be anything but a reliable narrator himself.

Based loosely on a program a New York City mayor floated but did not initiate, A Better Life is Lionel Shriver at her best: smart, funny, and sensitive to the moral nuances of perhaps the most divisive issue of our times.

Review Quotes

"Rather than satirize or steamroll, Shriver takes her open-armed and open-borders characters as seriously and empathetically as her anti-immigration ones . . . . Unlike much contemporary literary fiction, which weighs heavily toward interiority and autofiction, Shriver's novels are both idea- and plot-driven. She creates large casts of interesting, complicated characters. Though she is not a satirist, her gimlet-eyed prose conveys a caustic humor." ⎯ Wall Street Journal

"Shriver's deft prose presents emotional arguments that encapsulate both sides of the immigration debate, successfully reading the pulse of current American conversations on the topic. This is a book readers will be eager to talk about." ⎯ Library Journal (starred review)

"If A Better Life is slightly more sympathetic to the pragmatic immigration restrictionist than the bleeding-heart open borders advocate, it's still a compassionate rendering of each, in the fullness of their humanity. No character in this story is reducible to his or her politics; all of them are, by turns, flawed and foolish and relatable and wonderful . . . . And instead of only telling ourselves stories in order to live, we could also invite storytellers like Shriver to complicate the narrative, by telling the truth about how we live." ⎯ The Free Press

"Shriver is a smart and compelling writer, a cut above most novelists working today. By mining the headlines on the migration crisis, she produces an excellent thriller . . . . The plot twists are satisfying, but the novel also asks potent questions on migration. What is lost when we invite 'too many' others into our country? Who really belongs here? And if we're being taken advantage of, who is at fault?" ⎯ UnHerd

"Few novelists today can match Lionel Shriver for topical range . . . She has a wry observational intelligence that propels her well beyond her personal orbit. She is also adept at unpacking psychological states and analyzing relationships with almost clinical incisiveness. Her writing is witty, and startlingly precise . . . Shriver's novels teem with well-chosen observations about ordinary life, the sort that some literary novels skip . . . Shriver . . . delivers a clever pillorying of Americans' belief that our place at the top of the international hierarchy is both deserved and permanent." ⎯ The Atlantic

"The novel provokes and stimulates with all its twists." ⎯ The Spectator

"An excellent new book . . . . Shriver is such a good writer that you can both imagine where things are going and not be able to predict how they are going to get there." ⎯ Douglas Murray, New York Post

"A Better Life is a splendidly paced satire . . . Shriver asks us to consider what to do when their quest for a better life for themselves winds up making life worse for everyone else . . . An expert in the depiction and skewering of middle-class vanity, Shriver is merciless in examining dainty liberal principles, then shredding them and the people who hold them . . . Shriver shrewdly develops the characters through the maelstrom of their circumstances . . . A Better Life demonstrates how liberal kindness masks contempt." ⎯ City Journal

"Phenomenal and fascinating." ⎯ The Ben Shapiro Show

"A Better Life is a tour de force, a comic page-turner that addresses one of the biggest political issues of our time head-on without ever becoming programmatic or preachy. It's classical Shriver: a readable romp, lively, hilarious and spot on in its analysis of social malaise and human nature." ⎯ Quillette Podcast