Better Life

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

'A superb satirical novelist' WASHINGTON POST

In a provocative novel addressing contemporary immigration by the sharply observant Lionel Shriver, a New York family takes in a Honduran migrant - who may or may not be the innocent paragon she claims to be.

'An incendiary provocateur' EVENING STANDARD

'A gleeful satire on the immigration debate' THE TIMES

Gloria Bonaventura, a divorced mother of three living with her 26-year-old son Nico in a sprawling house in Brooklyn, decides to participate in a new city programme - Big Apple, Big Heart - that would pay her to take in a migrant as a boarder. Gloria is thrilled when sweet, kind, helpful Martine arrives. But Nico is sceptical. A classic live-at-home, unemployed Gen Zer with no interest in adulthood, Nico resents the indignity of moving from his self-contained basement flat and back into his childhood bedroom.

As the months go by, Martine endears herself to both Nico's sisters, while finding her way into Gloria's heart. But as Martine's disturbingly dodgy compatriots begin to show up, Nico grows only more hostile to both his mother's altruism and the 'migrant crisis' in general - though turns out to be anything but a reliable narrator himself.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9780008800116
Published: February 2026

Number of pages: 304
Width: 153 mm
Height: 234 mm
Depth: 26 mm

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers