But trust me, it was no dystopian downer it was funny and riveting. We follow one family's step-by-step decline into utter destitution, in the wider setting of New York City's descent into lawlessness. It's 10 or so years in the future, and the dollar implodes, leading to a nationwide economic collapse. I was absolutely mad about this modern-day, black-humored GRAPES OF WRATH. Thus it is necessarily about bitterness, rivalry, and selfishness-but also about surreal generosity, sacrifice, and transformative adaptation to changing circumstances. Only Florence’s oddball teenage son, Willing, an economics autodidact, will save this formerly august American family from the streets. Her brother, Carter, fumes at caring for their demented stepmother, now that an assisted living facility isn’t affordable. An expat author, their aunt, Nollie, returns from abroad at seventy-three to a country that’s unrecognizable.

Recently affluent, Avery is petulant that she can’t buy olive oil, while her sister, Florence, absorbs strays into her cramped household. economy spirals into dysfunction-the challenge of sheer survival.

Once the inheritance turns to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment, but also-as the U.S. The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their ninety-seven-year-old patriarch dies. What little remains to savers is rapidly eaten away by runaway inflation. “Deadbeat Nation” being unable to borrow, the government prints money to cover its bills. Overnight, on the international currency exchange, the “almighty dollar” plummets in value, to be replaced by a new global currency, the “bancor.” In retaliation, the president declares that America will default on its loans. In 2029, the United States is engaged in a bloodless world war that will wipe out the savings of millions of American families. Down-to-earth and perfectly realistic in scale, this is not an over-the-top Blade Runner tale. sovereign debt default on four generations of a once-prosperous American family.

With dry wit and psychological acuity, this near-future novel explores the aftershocks of an economically devastating U.S.

The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver