Mania

· Borough Press · Narrated by Abby Craden
4.2
4 reviews
Audiobook
9 hr 22 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

'Seldom is a book as funny, important and timely ... I was laughing out loud at the same time as my blood was running cold' JOHN CLEESE

‘Viciously funny... an exhilarating satire’ THE TIMES

'Merciless... a welcome distraction' ECONOMIST, Best Books of 2024

What if calling someone stupid was illegal?

In a reality not too distant from our own, 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 discarded and you don't need a qualification to be a doctor.

When best friends Pearson and Emory find themselves on opposing sides of this new culture war, their relationship begins to fracture. And soon, Pearson’s determination to cling onto the 'old, bigoted way of thinking' begins to endanger her job, her safety and even her family...

Hilarious, deadpan and scathing, MANIA is a frighteningly plausible glimpse into what the world could become, from the pen of a master storyteller.

Ratings and reviews

4.2
4 reviews
Sam Todd
April 12, 2024
Although this is meant to be fiction it doesn't take the greatest leap of imagination to picture a universe where things like exams and grades are consigned to history - the former was scrapped in the real world during lockdown, for example - and the kind of snitch culture where children are encouraged to shop their parents for using the word stupid - and/or variations on it - seems all too real as well.
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Joe Fitzgerald
August 23, 2024
Skewers various social justice fads with this clever narrative conceit (and you'll probably be sympathetic if you sought out this book at all) but labours the point a bit.
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Jason Gauthier
May 2, 2024
Hilarious satire and disturbingly plausible.
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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 the average person. The outdated meritocracy of intellectual achievement has made her a bestseller multiple times and awarded her prizes including the Orange Prize, but she accepts that all of these accidental accolades are basically meaningless. She lives in Portugal and Brooklyn, New York.

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