Lionel Shriver in conversation with Fiammetta Rocco

Fiammetta Rocco, literary editor of the Economist will be in conversation with award winning author, Lionel Shriver. The two women will discuss, amongst many matters, the state of American fiction: an interesting subject for an American novelist who now lives in the UK.
Big Brother: obesity novel
The writer's most recent book, Big Brother: A Novel, inspired by the morbid obesity of one of her brothers, tackles head-on a problem which engulfs both American and, increasingly, British society.
Lionel Shriver - writing style and themes
Shriver, born Margaret Ann Shriver, published six novels before writing her "make or break" novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin, published in 2003. This divisive book brought her commercial success, acclaim, and the Orange Prize. We Need to Talk About Kevin, a controversial study of maternal ambivalence and high-school shooting was subsequently made into a prize-winning film starring Tilda Swinton. The eponymous Kevin is not Shriver's only unsympathetic character; the writer will also discuss why so often creates characters who are hard to love.