Should We Stay or Should We Go

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A best fiction book of 2021 for The Times

Hilarious Fiery phrases spit and crackle. Disgust expands and bursts into belly laughs a very funny book Sunday Times

Thought-provoking, timely, and extremely funny Metro
Shriver said that her favourite novels are those that pack both an intellectual and emotional punch. With Should We Stay or Should We Go, shes added triumphantly to their number The Times

Witty and thought-provoking Womans Weekly

I think Shrivers novels are wonderful fun, smart and, perhaps because of their authors unconventional political views, unlike anything else youll read Financial Times

Entertaining and poignant Daily Mail

Very moving Shriver has the magic ability to make the reader invested in the fate fates, I should say of her characters Daily Telegraph

Wickedly witty Spectator

Decidedly timely Scotsman

This sharp-elbowed satire is also a brusquely tender portrait of enduring love Washington Post

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Determined to die with dignity, Kay and her husband Cyril both healthy and vital medical professionals in their early fifties make a pact: to commit suicide together once theyve both turned eighty.

A lot can change in thirty years, however

By turns hilarious and touching, playful and grave, Should We Stay or Should We Go portrays twelve parallel universes, each exploring a possible future for Kay and Cyril. Do they honour their agreement And if not, will they live to regret it

Some books become so popular that the lucky author can thereafter churn out any old cobblers, confident in the knowledge that it will be published and find an audience. Lionel Shriver never took that easy route Irish Independent

Reviews

An acerbically funny thought experiment A contrarian on the page as well as in real life, Shriver is on fine form here, messing with her characters lives while asking the big questions about mortality with a rigorous lack of sentimentality The Times books of the year

Theres something bracing about reading a novelist so admirably heartless, watching her pull the legs off her characters again and again I think Shrivers novels are wonderful fun, smart and, perhaps because of their authors unconventional political views, unlike anything else youll read Financial Times

A work of undeniable moral seriousness, yet one thats never just a series of (admittedly juicy) discussion points. Even the most fantastical outcomes are envisaged with exhilarating thoroughness while Cyril and Kay remain the same richly conceived characters throughout. Despite the grimness of the premise, the book also offers the stirring sight of a writer clearly enjoying herself The Times

Its hideous but also hilarious. Through the potent spell of Shrivers language, horror gets alchemised into amusement. Fiery phrases spit and crackle. Disgust expands and bursts into belly laughs a very funny book Sunday Times

After a (pun intended) deathly start, Shrivers typically provocative novel manages to be both entertaining and poignant, with the novelist even poking fun at herself as she questions what makes a good innings. It might (almost) be a beach read Daily Mail

Shriver uses a parallel universe structure to explore various outcomes and somehow makes conversations about death feel far from taboo Sunday Telegraph

Some books become so popular that the lucky author can thereafter churn out any old cobblers, confident in the knowledge that it will be published and find an audience. Lionel Shriver never took that easy route Irish Independent

Author Bio

Lionel Shriver's novels include the National Book Award finalist So Much for That, the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World, and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian and the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other publications. She lives in London and Brooklyn, New York.