The Female of the Species

"Shriver's debut is a 'literary' novel without an iota of pretentiousness. It reads with the grace of a well-written spy story, but conveys some of its author's early wisdom about what our humanity both demands of and grants us." --Washington Post

The first novel by the New York Times bestselling author Lionel Shriver, The Female of the Species is the exotic and chilling story of a highly independent and successful woman's late-life romantic education, in all its ecstasy and desperation

Still unattached and childless at fifty-nine, world-renowned anthropologist Gray Kaiser is seemingly invincible--and untouchable. Returning to make a documentary at the site of her first great triumph in Kenya, she is accompanied by her faithful middle-aged assistant, Errol McEchern, who has loved her for years in silence. When sexy young graduate assistant Raphael Sarasola arrives on the scene, Gray is captivated and falls hopelessly in love--before an amazed and injured Errol's eyes. As he follows the progress of their affair with jealous fascination, Errol watches helplessly from the sidelines as a proud and fierce woman is reduced to miserable dependence through subtle, cruel, and calculating manipulation.

Lionel Shriver's fiction includes The Mandibles; Property; the National Book Award finalist So Much for That; the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World; and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, adapted for a 2010 film starring Tilda Swinton. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. She's a regular columnist for the Spectator in Britain and Harper's Magazine in the US. She lives in London and Brooklyn, New York.