The Motion of the Body Through Space

‘Enjoyably abrasive… a compelling read… sardonic and elegant’ Evening Standard

‘Scabrously funny… few authors can be as entertainingly problematic as Shriver’ Guardian

‘With laugh-out-loud and sad moments, it’s a pinpoint-sharp novel’ Woman and Home

‘A satire on fitness zealotry with a side serving of culture-war intrigue… diverting’ Financial Times

‘Darkly funny… Shriver is so good at making wry observations about human behaviour and this is particularly witty on the dynamics between couples who have been together a long time’ Good Housekeeping

‘Shriver is an exuberant novelist, fertile in ideas, robust in argument and disdainful of economy… She writes bold and fearless comedy and delights in slaughtering the sacred cows of the stupid times we live in. Few novelists now raise a laugh. Shriver does so time and again’ Allan Massie, The Scotsman

‘Mischievous Lionel Shriver takes aim at the narcissistic modern cult of exercise. When Serenata’s usually sedentary husband, Remington, takes up exercise and engages an attractive personal trainer called Bambi, the couple’s lives are turned upside down.’ The Times Best Books for Summer 2020

All her life Serenata has run, swum, and cycled – but now that she’s hit 60, all that physical activity has destroyed her knees. And her previously sedentary husband Remington chooses this precise moment to discover exercise.

As he joins the cult of fitness, her once-modest husband burgeons into an unbearable narcissist. When he announces his intention to compete in a legendarily gruelling triathlon, Serenata is sure he's going to end up injured or dead – but the stubbornness of an ageing man in Lycra is not to be underestimated.

The story of an obsession, of a marriage, of a betrayal: The Motion of the Body Through Space is Lionel Shriver at her hilarious, sharp-eyed, audacious best.