Lionel Shriver, Mania

Author of best-selling We Need To Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver, turns her piercing gaze on the policing of opinion and intellect, and imagines a world in which intellectual meritocracy is heresy. Mania is hilarious, deadpan, scathing and at times frighteningly plausible.

What if calling someone stupid was illegal?

In a reality not too distant from our own, everyone is equally clever, and discrimination based on intelligence is ‘the last great civil rights fight’.

This event will include an audience Q&A. After the event there will be an opportunity to get your book signed by the author.

Friday 31 May, 7.00PM

Venue: Anglia Ruskin University, Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford, CM1 1SQ
Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (Students, Under 27s and Unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Mania by Lionel Shriver

Published 11 April 2024

Order a copy of Mania at bookshop.org

What if calling someone stupid was illegal?

In a reality not too distant from our own, where the so-called Mental Parity Movement has taken hold, the worst thing you can call someone is ‘stupid’.
Everyone is equally clever, and discrimination based on intelligence is ‘the last great civil rights fight’.

Exams and grades are all discarded, and smart phones are rebranded. Children are expelled for saying the S-word and encouraged to report parents for using it. You don’t need a qualification to be a doctor.

Best friends since adolescence, Pearson and Emory find themselves on opposing sides of this new culture war. Radio personality Emory – who has built her career riding the tide of popular thought – makes increasingly hard-line statements while, for her part, Pearson believes the whole thing is ludicrous.

As their friendship fractures, Pearson’s determination to cling onto the ‘old bigoted way of thinking’ begins to endanger her job, her safety and even her family.

Lionel Shriver turns her piercing gaze on the policing of opinion and intellect, and imagines a world in which intellectual meritocracy is heresy. Hilarious, deadpan, scathing and at times frighteningly plausible, Mania will delight the many fans of her fiction and journalism alike.

About the Author

Although Lionel Shriver has published many novels, a collection of essays, and a column in the Spectator since 2017, and her journalism has featured in publications including the Guardian, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, she in no way wishes for the inclusion of this information to imply that she is more ‘intelligent’ or ‘accomplished’ than anyone else. The outdated meritocracy of intellectual achievement has made her a bestseller multiple times and accorded her awards including the Orange Prize, but she accepts that all of these accidental accolades are basically meaningless. She lives in Portugal and Brooklyn, New York.

Photo of Lionel Shriver © credit Mark Kohn