Preview
  • The Mandibles

  • A Family, 2029-2047
  • By: Lionel Shriver
  • Narrated by: George Newbern
  • Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (60 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Mandibles

By: Lionel Shriver
Narrated by: George Newbern
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $27.58

Buy for $27.58

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

THE BRILLIANT NEW NOVEL FROM THE ORANGE PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN.

‘Distinctly chilling’ Independent

‘Unsettling as it is entertaining’ Financial Times

‘It's scaring the hell out of me’ Tracy Chevalier

In this eerily prophetic novel from the Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, a once-wealthy family faces the prospect of ruin. This apocalypse is financial – the dollar is in meltdown, America’s national debt far beyond repayment.

It is 2029.

The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-year-old patriarch dies, but now their inheritance is turned to ash. Each family member must contend with disappointment, but also — as the effects of the downturn start to hit — the challenge of sheer survival.

Recently affluent Avery is petulant that she can’t buy olive oil, while her sister Florence is forced to absorb strays into her increasingly cramped household. As their father Carter fumes at having to care for his demented stepmother now that a nursing home is too expensive, his sister Nollie, an expat author, returns from abroad at 73 to a country that’s unrecognizable.

Perhaps only Florence’s oddball teenage son Willing, an economics autodidact, can save this formerly august American family from the streets…

©2016 Lionel Shriver (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Mandibles

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    32
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    26
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    27
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lionel é a melhor

Espero com ansiedade o aparecimento de cada título da Lionel na Audible. Amo todos. Este é inesquecível. Um futuro surpreendente. Muito bem gravado.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

So prescient

a nearly prophetic description of our current situation. Insightful account of the path to hyper inflation that we are on we are on with government controlled fiat money. How sound money which is backed by hard work (energy and time) like gold like gold (and Bitcoin if you ask me) is the base layer of any civilization. destroy the money by inflating it to finance government largess, will destroy the society in the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Imaginative and engrossing

This was an imaginative and engrossing book. I hope it doesn’t come to pass, but who knows? The author deserves high praise for warning us of what may be ahead.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful, Original Vision of the Future

A thought provoking story of how institutions may collapse but communities and families can survive

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What a great read!

Loved the story. Shriver has a gift for portraying economic climate through human interactions and his storytelling has a welcoming humour beneath the harshness of the situations.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Destopian, boring, endless - non liable for return

It took forever to get to the exiting part. The book ended before the exiting part. The characters are unremarkable, the story plausible but uninspiring. You will be so happy when its over. Worst of all, its not possible to return this title.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful