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Property

A Collection

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Property

By: Lionel Shriver
Narrated by: Lionel Shriver
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About this listen

The first ever story collection from the inimitable Lionel Shriver

‘Genius’ Stylist

‘Phenomenal’ Observer

‘Brilliant’ The Times

In her first ever story collection, Lionel Shriver illuminates one of the modern age’s most enduring obsessions: property.

A woman creates a deeply personal wedding present for her best friend; a thirty-something son refuses to leave home; a middle-aged man subjugated by service to his elderly father discovers that the last place you should finally assert yourself is airport security.

This landmark publication explores the idea of "property" in both senses of the word: real estate, and stuff. Immensely readable, it showcases the biting insight that has made Lionel Shriver one of the most acclaimed authors of our time.

©2018 Lionel Shriver (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Anthologies & Short Stories Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Short Stories

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Critic reviews

‘Shriver’s intellect and talent, her political convictions and her impressive confidence are all on display … assertive, frequently funny and altogether satisfying … her confident grasp of the material and her natural gifts as a storyteller will keep you in her spell and leave you, at the end, slightly altered … persuasive and richly entertaining’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘Phenomenal… Shriver has the gift for making one instantly curious, entertained, involved and ready to move in – no matter what the property’ OBSERVER

‘Genius’ STYLIST

‘At her best, she takers the familiar and mundane and turns it into something surprising and strange’ SUNDAY EXPRESS S MAGAZINE

‘All Shriver’s stories are satisfying. I exhaled a little triumphant “Ha!” at the end of each one … Shriver is brilliant’ THE TIMES

‘Shriver remains a formidably sharp writer, one of the best we have’ EVENING STANDARD

‘Shriver is at her best here, an acerbic comedian, Dickensian in style, whose vibrant characters are best seen in dramatic action and dialogue’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Whip-smart … Crisp, conversational and convincingly true to life, Shriver’s stories are a treat’ DAILY MAIL

‘A pugnacious, brilliantly articulate, hilarious collection’ i NEWS

‘Shriver is the master of the neat twist’ DAILY EXPRESS
All stars
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Absolutely adore this author and having listened to her speak at various festivals and having read almost everything she’s written, I am almost relieved that there is something she is not brilliant at! Actually stopped listening to this and will read instead. Would not however put me off listening to anything from her in future - she’s brilliant - just as long as she doesn’t narrate it if British accents are required!

Love Lionel but not as a narrator

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I have admired previous work by Lionel Shriver which enticed me to buy this audio book. I have finished the first story which was intruguing and which ordinarily would have led me to continue with the collection. Unfortunately, Shriver's voice narration has deterred me and I'm at a loss to understand why she was chosen to do the performance. She hesitates on the brink of certain words, as if to underline them, her voice and pace sound thumping and yet shrill and generally this creates a barrier between the story and the listener. She has no skills in performance reading, so Audible please note! Not sure I'll be finishing the rest on audio so a bit annoyed at this waste of money.

Great theme

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Shriver's writing is wonderful, I love it. I still love this collection of short stories and really glad I bought it despite the dreadful accents Shriver attempts- as a native English person I cannot work out where most of them are supposed to be from, they really are Dick Van Dyke bad. Thankfully mostly she reads in her own accent and reads well.

Shriver's writing is wonderful, I love it.

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I normally love her novels, esp Kevin and later, but this is a strange affair. Most of the endings are visible from the beginning, as if you climbed a tree with binoculars not a handsaw. But the main fault isn't the stories themselves but Shriver's lack of aptitude as a voice artist. Why did she do it? A bigger royalty share? It is hopeless. Normally a monotone, she leavens the drudgery with accent and dialect, but she can't do accent and dialogue. One character was supposed to be somehow gaelic I felt, because he said wee for small. But I have no clue what flavour. Probably not Breton. Another had a crazy hybrid of West Country, Australian, working class London and speech impediment. It was way too poor and annoying to be comically hapless. At times it was actively intrusive as you really don't know what the characters say. Her attempt at a child's voice was like someone who'd only seen children from a distance. Her talent as a voice artist is only surpassed by her efforts as a cultural diplomat. Her editors and producer are to blame. Would they have let her typeset the print? Code the Kindle? Drive the delivery van. Just say no.

Say what?

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I LOVE Lionel. I've read/listened to so much of her work over and over again and having already read this collection I was excited to order it. The stories are great, but THE ACCENTS! It really detracted from the story as it was totally impossible to listen to any 'British' dialogue without total incredulity. What a shame- I can't believe no-one picked her up on it!!! Lots of the stories don't have British characters though- those ones are awesome.

The accents, oh the accents!!

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14 hours is a long download – 10 short stories book-ended with 2 longish novellas, all on the theme of possession and rights, whether over property or another human being.

Lionel Shriver is undeniably razor-sharp and strident in her robust opinions on topics of the moment such as immigration, religion, property owning and the shortcomings of the millennial smart-phone generation, but the trouble with creating fiction as a vehicle to expound on these opinions and observations is that the characters Shriver creates (and there are a great many of them) are almost without exception unpleasant, unkind, unappealing, unsympathetic, uncompromising people.

There are plenty of sharp observations on marital and family relationships and the madness of aspects of today’s society, but 14 hours is a very long time to spend in these characters’ unrelieved company and Shriver’s entirely appropriate but unpleasant, grating, harsh, hard voice doesn’t make the experience any more enjoyable. Some of the stories are set in the UK and hearing the attempt of strongly American Shriver to speak like her idea of rough English speakers is one of the worst audio performances I’ve ever heard in my long audio-listening life!

The best, set in Africa,is KIlifi Creek, even though the arrogant, ignorant, selfish millennial protagonist is thoroughly unlikeable: a well-structured and memorable short story.

Domestic territorial conflict

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I really enjoyed property . it was a clever idea to base a whole book of stories around one theme. All perspectives were covered. one disappointment was Lionel's narration. I usually love having the author read but she just doesn't have the voice for it and her accents were very off.

a very clever collection

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Although Lionel Shriver has sharp and sometimes witty observations on contemporary life, you don't usually turn to her for a bit of a giggle. Until this collection. And it is her narration that stops you in your tracks and provides the laugh. But it's only funny in the shock of the moment. Only amusing while you wonder how this has been produced and brought to market as a serious Audible offering.
Not since Dick Van Dyke has a cockney accent been so horribly and hilariously mangled. Sadly all the delivery, apart from the few stories requiring only straightforward narration, is painful on the ear. I'd go back over the collection to be more specific as to which of the stories are particularly bad, but I just can't bear to listen to it again.
The sad thing is that such poor narration is intrusive. It comes between the audience and the communication. So I have no idea how good the stories are. Clearly not good enough for this listener.

Argh! Wish I'd read the reviews before purchasing

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Irish and ' Cotswolds' accents were off-putting or downright painful. Had to skip over the story with a 'Cotswolds' accent as it was so excruciating. Great writer but shockingly bad narrator :(

Narrator should really stick to writing !

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