| The Post-Birthday World | |
| Border: | yes |
| Author: | Lionel Shriver |
| Cover Artist: | Yo Oura |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Release Date: | 2007 |
| Media Type: | |
| Pages: | 600 |
| Isbn: | 0-00-724341-3 |
The Post-Birthday World is a novel by Lionel Shriver published in 2007, some four years after her previous novel, the award-winning We Need to Talk About Kevin.
As pointed out by Carrie O'Grady in The Guardian, it contains many autobiographical elements: the main protagonist Irina is of Russian descent, so speaks the language Shriver studied at university, and they are both Americans living in London and have both ended secure long-term relationships having fallen for 'more creative' types.[1] Sarah Lyall in The New York Times explains that Shriver found this decision the hardest in her life and goes on to quote her "There was more than one moment that I could have gone either way, I know what it’s like to be on the knife edge and to have this inkling that whichever way you go it’s going to have huge implications."[2] It was the potential consequences of this decision which inspired the story.
The book follows a 'parallel-universe' structure. At the end of the first chapter the protagonist Irina, in a happy long-term relationship, is tempted to kiss another man. After this common first chapter the narrative splits, with two chapter 2s, and chapter 3s etc. One stream following Irina after she succumbs to the temptation, the other as she resists. In her 2008 postscript to the book Shriver explains that this structure "allows me to explore the implications, large and small, of whom we choose to love" She goes on "I was not interested in writing a novel about the Good Man vs. the Bad Man, which would be flat and leave the reader with nothing to do. Instead, like We Need to Talk About Kevin before it, Post-Birthday World is what I call participatory fiction. You are presented with Irina's two departing futures, and the end of the novel throws Irina's original quandary right back in your lap"... "Do you kiss the guy or not?"[3]
Irina McGovern, a moderately successful children's book illustrator, lives with her long-term partner, the steady companionable Lawrence, a researcher at a London think-tank on international relations. Once a year they meet with Jude and her professional snooker player husband Ramsey Acton on his birthday. After Jude and Ramsey divorce, Lawrence and Irina continue the tradition. The following year, 1997, Lawrence is away in Sarajevo but encourages Irina to contact Ramsey, leading to the fateful decision on which the rest of the book hinges: whether or not to kiss Ramsey after retiring to his house to smoke dope after their restaurant meal.
In the first narrative Irina leaves Lawrence and moves in with Ramsey, leading to a fiery marriage as she accompanies him on the professional snooker tour and neglects her own career. In the other she remains with Lawrence though increasingly feels that their relationship is going nowhere. The two narratives intersect periodically as both personal and international events (such as the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and the September 11 attacks) intervene and the final chapter is indeed shared by both narratives...
It received generally positive reviews: