“A provocative and very funny page-turner…” — Wall Street Journal
“….[A] powerful work...Prescient, imaginative and funny, it also asks deep questions.” — The Economist
“Hilarious, brilliant new novel...” — Elle
“Known for tackling big contemporary issues head-on, Shriver deals skilfully here with the implications of economic meltdown. The novel, set in a near-ish future, tells of the plight of the once wealthy Mandible family and the decline of four generations into penury, thieving and prostitution.” — Financial Times (A Summer Pick of 2016)
“[Shriver has] a sharp social eye and a blistering comic streak, and her focus on nailing down the economic nitty-gritty of her plot is only one piece of the great, disconcerting fun she has in sending the world as we know it so vividly to hell.” — The New Yorker's Page-Turner Blog
“Shriver has always seemed to be at least a few steps ahead of the rest of us, but her new novel establishes her firmly as the Cassandra of American letters….I don’t remember the last time a novel held me so enduringly in its grip.” — New York Times Book Review
“It’s scaring the hell out of me.” — Tracy Chevalier
The world that the Mandible family must negotiate is evoked in seamless detail… One thing I really like is her coining of made-up slang for her younger generation of characters and her resolutely materialist analysis of what could be coming. — Jane Smiley, The Guardian
“Distinctly chilling.” — Independent (UK)
“This is a sharp, smart, snarky satire of every conspiracy theory and hot button political issue ever spun; one that, at first glance, might induce an absurdist chuckle, until one realizes that it is based on an all-too-plausible reality.” — Booklist (starred review)