Book review: The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver

It’s 2029, and driverless cars, household cyborgs and children named after search engines are the norm – but so are water shortages, hyperinflation and the sight of commuters routinely weeping on their way to work.

Forced under one roof thanks to an epic economic depression that makes the 2009 crash look like the tiniest of hiccups, four generations of the once affluent Mandible family must navigate a New York that’s becoming more dystopian by the minute.

But persistence pays off, for the reader as much as the Mandibles: what starts as unrelentingly bleak becomes a riveting – but still anxiety-inducing – read, as the family members resort to ever more desperate measures to stay afloat.

Masterful Shriver constructs the frighteningly believable near-future expertly and adds a healthy dose of knowing black humour (authors are obsolete by 2029; every newspaper has folded) into the mix.

But it’s not enough to lessen the sense of fear and dread that we could all be in the Mandibles’ boat not many years from now.

Published by The Borough Press