The Book Club: Lionel Shriver episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 12, 2026 · 38 MIN

The Book Club: Lionel Shriver

from Best of the Spectator

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Lionel Shriver, whose new novel A Better Life offers among other things a savage send-up of liberal pieties on immigration. I asked Lionel what she was trying to do with the book (why make the argument, for instance, in a novel rather than an op-ed?), whether New York's immigration law really is as nutty as her story paints it, and how she reacts to the opprobrium that this sort of to-the-moment writing stirs up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Lionel Shriver, whose new novel A Better Life offers among other things a savage send-up of liberal pieties on immigration. I asked Lionel what she was trying to do with the book (why make the argument, for instance, in a novel rather than an op-ed?), whether New York's immigration law really is as nutty as her story paints it, and how she reacts to the opprobrium that this sort of to-the-moment writing stirs up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Book Club: Lionel Shriver

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This episode is 38 minutes long.

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This episode was published on March 12, 2026.

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My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Lionel Shriver, whose new novel A Better Life offers among other things a savage send-up of liberal pieties on immigration. I asked Lionel what she was trying to do with the book (why make the argument,...

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