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3.0 

Double Fault

By Lionel Shriver
Double Fault by Lionel Shriver digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

“Shriver shows in a masterstroke why character is fate and how sport reveals it.” New York Times Book Review

From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World, and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin comes a brilliant and unflinching novel about the devastating cost of prizing achievement over love

Tennis has been Willy Novinsky's one love ever since she first picked up a racquet at the age of four. A middle-ranked pro at twenty-three, she's met her match in Eric Oberdorf, a low-ranked, untested Princeton grad who also intends to make his mark on the international tennis circuit. Eric becomes Willy's first passion off the court, and eventually they marry. But while wedded life begins well, full-tilt competition soon puts a strain on their relationship—and an unexpected accident sends driven and gifted Willy sliding irrevocably toward resentment, tragedy, and despair.

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Double Fault Reviews

3.0
“This is a case of reading a brilliant book by this author ("We Need to Talk About Kevin") and thinking another novel by the same author would be equally good. Sadly it wasn't.”
“4.25 stars. Several days ago I had a hankering for a book about tennis. Not a non-fiction and something different from what is often written about in book recommendation articles. By chance came across this and was drawn in not by the topic of tennis but a review that said this was a great study of personality/character which intrigued me. And that review was dead-on (or at least nicely primed my mind to think similarly). The major themes and concepts aren’t novel to literary fiction, but the richness of character Shriver gave to Willy (Wilhemena) and Eric were the main event. Neither the writing nor their personalities were weak, and it was so fascinating to be a fly on the wall to their constant back and forth and cerebral meditations. On the surface, this book is about tennis and at its heart, too, it’s about tennis. And marriage, but is that any less of a game between which people will occasionally hit shit back and forth?”

About Lionel Shriver

Although Lionel Shriver has published many novels, a collection of essays, and a column in the Spectator since 2017, and her journalism has been 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 anyone else. The outdated meritocracy of intellectual achievement has made her a bestselling author multiple times and accorded her awards, 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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