Who doesn't want a better life?

In Lionel Shriver's new novel, a family with a large and lovely house in Brooklyn invite a Honduran asylum seeker to come and live with them. The young woman is pleasant and helpful. But the adult son of the family – unemployed, idle, and disagreeable – is deeply opposed to her presence in his home. This being a Lionel Shriver novel, the drama soon goes in an unexpected direction. 

'A Better Life' is a novel about immigration, gender, and political polarisation – all topics we discuss today. Lionel is the author of nineteen novels, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction for the massive bestseller 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', and a columnist at the Spectator Magazine.

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