The concepts envisaged in this novel are futures I can see playing out in the world at large. Without a strong currency, the #Mandibles are a family that find themselves living in a country that has become lawless. The purchasing power of the dollar becomes fucking useless: $100 could get you a blowjob but not even a decent one. Set in the near future, a massive devaluation of the dollar wreaks havoc over a bewildered America. It took some time for me to get involved in the story but once I was in, I was able to grapple with the serious financial questions and consequences posed in the novel. The Mandibles by read by This book is definitely a grower.

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. Perhaps only Florence's oddball teenage son, Willing, an economics autodidact, can save this formerly august American family from the streets. 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 unrecognisable. 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. 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. A bloodless world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families. Under siege from an upstart international currency, the dollar is in meltdown. Yet America's soaring national debt has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid. The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-year-old patriarch dies. The brilliant new novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin centres on three generations of the Mandible family as a fiscal crisis hits a near-future America.

The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver