Double Fault
Lionel Shriver

Serpent’s Tail 2007. Pocket 342 sidor. Mycket gott skick.
ISBN 9781852424909

Love me, love my game' says twenty-three year-old Willy Novinsky. Ever since she picked up a racquet at the age of four, tennis has been Willy's one love, until the day she meets Eric Oberdorf. She's a middle-ranked professional tennis player and he's a Princeton graduate who took up playing tennis at the age of eighteen. Low-ranked but untested, Eric, too, aims to make his mark on the international tennis circuit. Willy beholds compatibility spiced with friendly rivalry, and discovers her first passion outside a tennis court. They marry.

Married life starts well but soon gives way to full-tilt competition over who can rise to the top first. Driven and gifted, Willy maintains the lead until she severs her knee ligaments in a fall. As Willy recuperates, her ranking plummets whilst her husband's climbs, until he is eventually playing in the US Open. Anguished at falling short of her lifelong dream and resentful of her husband's success, Willy slides irresistibly toward the first quiet tragedy of her young life.

'With prose as taut as a well-strung racquet, you'll be captivated' Marie Claire

'That Shriver refuses to avert her gaze, much less sweeten the pill, is what makes her such an interesting writer' Daily Telegraph

'Shriver is a truly remarkable star in the literary firmament. She has an uncanny sense of the way women subject themselves to secret, inward torture, weighing themselves down with passionate feelings they believe socially unacceptable to bring out in the open... I doubt there is any thoughtful woman who does not recognise herself somewhere in Shriver's writing' Lisa Jardine, Financial Times
'The characters and situation are utterly convincing and the level of detail in the narrative provides a ghastly gossipy pleasure' Lesley Glaister

'Shriver doesn't care whether her characters are likeable or not: they play off one another's strengths and weaknesses in a mesmerizing grudge match' Saga Magazine

'The scenes between Willy and Eric are terrific pieces of writing: the dialogue crackles with rage, frustration and bitterness' Independent

'Her writing is as precise and devastating as a Federer forehand' Belfast Telegraph

"When feminism has become the politics that dare not speak its name, it is refreshing to find an author who will bring such renewed vigour to the gender wars' Guardian

'Her exploration of her characters is so fearless that although readers may not sympathise with her, they'll understand why she's driven to destroy what she loves' Metro

A cautionary tale of passion and rivalry, Double Fault is also a love story set in the high-pressure world of professional tennis. With the unerring scrutiny that is her trademark, Shriver examines a modern marriage not a pretty sight.