Novelist, cultural observer and social satirist Lionel Shriver is among the sharpest talents of our age. A writer who embraces “under-expressed, unpopular or downright dangerous” points of view, she filets cherished shibboleths and the conformity of thought and attitude that has overtaken us. Bringing together 35 works curated from her many columns, features, essays and op-eds, along with some unpublished pieces, ABOMINATIONS reveals Shriver at her most iconoclastic and personal. Relentlessly skeptical, cutting and contrarian, this collection showcases Shriver’s piquant opinions on a wide range of topics --- including religion, politics, illness, mortality, family and friends, tennis, gender, immigration, consumerism, health care and taxes.

“Drop whatever you’re doing, Detective Cross, and head to Reagan Airport,” DC Metro Police dispatch says. “A jet just crashed and exploded on the runway. The chief and the FBI want you and John Sampson there pronto.” Cross and Sampson race to the crash site. The plane didn’t fail --- it was shot down by a stolen Vietnam War–era machine gun. The list of experts who can operate the weapon is short. And time before another lethal strike runs even shorter. Especially for Alex Cross.

Ten years ago, 15-year-old Scarlett Crosby was held captive in a terrifying ordeal with a girl named Della. Scarlett escaped, their predator was killed, and Della simply vanished. Detective Kevin Dawson always wondered if Della even existed. A decade later, Scarlett is a successful artist. As hard as she tries to move on, the mysterious Della remains her inescapable obsession. Then a girl’s body is discovered, and all of Scarlett’s old traumas resurface. So does Della. Scarlett has seen her hiding in plain sight. As a suspicious Detective Dawson once again comes calling, and obsessions turn deadly, Scarlett fears there isn’t a living soul she can trust. As for Della, who’s watching from afar, what could she possibly want from Scarlett now? And what new nightmare lies ahead?

Vacant homes in a new housing development are erupting into flames in broad daylight with no apparent cause. It’s a perplexing mystery for dogged arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his restless new partner, Andrew Walker, an ex–US marshal. But as they puzzle over the blazes, another home miles away burns to the ground, leaving a man’s corpse in the ashes and homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone demanding answers. The four detectives team up, which leads to one shocking discovery after another. Now they must gamble their lives to unmask a brilliant arsonist, crack open a massive swindle, track down a desperate fugitive with a terrifying secret, and race against time to save thousands of people from an agonizing death.

From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society. The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the Titanic. In ASTOR, Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America --- offering a window onto the making of America itself.

Despite their strained relationship, when Gia Rossi’s sister, Margot, begs her to come home to Wakefield, Iowa, to help with their ailing mother, Gia knows she has no choice. As expected, her homecoming is far from welcome. There’s the Banned Books Club she started after the PTA overzealously slashed the high school reading list, which is right where she left it. But there is also Mr. Hart, her former favorite teacher, who was fired after Gia publicly and painfully accused him of sexual misconduct. When Margot leaves town without explanation, Gia sees the cracks in her sister’s “perfect” life for the first time and plans to offer support. But as the town, including members of the book club, takes sides between Gia and Mr. Hart, everything gets harder.

In 1916, during the early days of the Great Migration, Celia Coleman and Lucy Grimes flee the racism and poverty of their homes in the South for the “Promised Land” of Vauxhall, New Jersey. But the North possesses its own challenges and bigotries that will shape the fates of the women and their families over the next 70 years. Within 10 years of arriving in Vauxhall, both Celia and Lucy’s husbands are dead, and they turn to one another for support. Encouraged by their mothers’ friendship, their children’s lives become enmeshed as well. As the children grow into adolescence, two are caught in an impulsive act of impropriety, and Celia and Lucy find themselves at irreconcilable odds over who’s to blame. The ensuing fallout has dire consequences that reverberate through the next two generations of their families.

Few, if any, historians have brought such insight, wisdom and empathy to public discourse as Jill Lepore. Arriving at The New Yorker in 2005, Lepore brought a transporting freshness and a literary vivacity to everything from profiles of long-dead writers to urgent constitutional analysis to an unsparing scrutiny of the woeful affairs of the nation itself. The astonishing essays collected in THE DEADLINE offer a prismatic portrait of Americans’ techno-utopianism, frantic fractiousness and unprecedented --- but armed --- aimlessness. From lockdowns and race commissions to Bratz dolls and bicycles, to the losses that haunt Lepore’s life, these essays again and again cross what she calls the deadline, the “river of time that divides the quick from the dead.”

1927: Mary Rourke --- a Hollywood studio fixer --- is called urgently to the palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in American silent film. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone is openly talking about: a terrifying horror picture called The Devil’s Playground that is rumored to have unleashed a curse on everyone involved in the production. Mary finds Norma’s cold, dead body, and she wonders for just a moment if these dark rumors could be true. 1967: Paul Conway, a journalist and self-professed film aficionado, is on the trail of a tantalizing rumor. He has heard that a single copy of The Devil’s Playground may exist. He knows his Hollywood history, and he knows the film endured myriad tragedies and ended up lost to time.

There were once four worlds, each pulsing with fantastical power and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. Now, only three Antari are known in recent memory --- Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk of White London. But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years --- and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland's absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own --- but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown it instead. And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion.

When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. If the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon are starting to come true, how much future is actually left? Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, an internet-famous survivalist named Lai Zhen flees from an assassin. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future? Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion.

Cassie Peters has left her hectic and secretive life in New York City for the refuge of her hometown of Mammoth Lakes, California. There, she begins working again with Yosemite Search and Rescue, where a case she worked a decade ago continues to haunt her. She joins a group of fellow seasonal workers and young adventurers who have made Yosemite their home during the summer. There, she meets Petal, a young woman living in a trailer with her much older wife, keeping a detailed diary of the goings-on of the park, and Jada, a recent college graduate on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, documenting their journey on Instagram. When these three women cross paths, Cassie’s past catches up with her, and the shocking consequences ripple out far beyond what any could have imagined.

After attempting to sever all ties to her life as a hired assassin, a woman struggles to understand who she has become. She knows she doesn’t want to kill again --- but it proves to be a difficult habit to break. Adrift and disconnected, she meets an old woman: Imogen O’Brien, a world-famous artist who has spent the last three decades living a hermit-like existence on a rustic desert estate in a national forest. Imogen invites her to stay and work for her, offering mentorship in return as the woman deepens her own interest in art. What quickly becomes apparent is that elements of Imogen’s past are shrouded in danger, sorrow and darkness. Rather than growing as an artist, the former hitwoman soon finds herself enmeshed in a dangerous mystery with strands that stretch decades into the past.

Victor Chin’s life is turned upside down at the tender age of 15. Diagnosed with Hansen’s disease, otherwise known as leprosy, he’s forced to leave the familiar confines of his father’s laundry business in the Bronx --- the only home he’s known since emigrating from China with his older brother --- to quarantine alongside patients from all over the country at a federal institution in Carville. At first, Victor is scared not only of the disease, but of the confinement, and wants nothing more than to flee. Between treatments he dreams of escape and imagines his life as a fugitive. Soon, though, he finds a new sense of freedom far from home. But with the promise of a life-changing cure on the horizon, Victor’s time at Carville is running out, and he has some difficult choices to make.

Jasmine Yang arrives in New York City from her rural Chinese village without money or family support, fleeing a controlling husband, on a desperate search for the daughter who was taken from her at birth --- another female casualty of China’s controversial One Child Policy. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she’s forced to make increasingly risky decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her daughter. Meanwhile, publishing executive Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a prestigious family name, a high-powered career, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardize not only Rebecca’s job but also her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble and her role in her own family is called into question.

Due to Jack Stapleton’s ongoing recovery from his near-death confrontation with a serial killer, his wife, Laurie Montgomery, the NYC chief medical examiner, is carrying the load both at work and at home. When she insists that an underperforming pathology resident named Ryan Sullivan assist her on a suicide autopsy, Laurie unknowingly provokes an emotional storm in the trainee. So when Ryan himself appears on the medical examiner's table days later, an apparent death by suicide, Laurie’s guilt compels her to try to understand why. Jack’s autopsy on the resident opens the disturbing possibility that the manner of death wasn’t suicide but instead a staged homicide. But staged by whom?
Laurie ignores her own professional rules and responsibilities to investigate personally who might want Ryan dead...and for what reason.

Rose Aslani is mid-bikini wax when her phone lights up with a notification: Famed scam artist Poppy Hastings will be released from prison today. It’s been two years since Rose --- a first-generation Middle Eastern American, functional trainwreck and reporter for the online journal The Shred --- wrote the investigative article that exposed Poppy as a socialite grifter. But the article and the highly publicized trial that followed only turned Poppy into the internet’s favorite celebrity. As Poppy's star rises as an influencer and pop-culture icon, Rose becomes obsessed with exposing Poppy for the monster that she is (with the help of a devilishly handsome FBI agent gone rogue, no less). But it’s not going to be easy taking down the most famous girl in the world.

Alison has never been a fan of Christmas. But with it right around the corner and her husband busily decorating their cozy Vermont home, she has no choice but to face it. Then she gets the call. Mavis, Alison’s estranged mother, has been diagnosed with cancer and has only weeks to live. She wants to spend her remaining days with her daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters. But Alison grew up with her mother’s alcoholism and violent abuse and is reluctant to unearth these traumatic memories. Still, she eventually agrees to take in Mavis, hoping that she and her mother could finally heal and have the relationship she’s always dreamed of. But when mysterious and otherworldly things start happening upon Mavis’ arrival, Alison begins to suspect that her mother is not quite who she seems.

Amelia Collins is tired of the constant questions from her family about her nonexistent dating life. When an invitation to yet another family wedding arrives, she decides to get everyone off her back once and for all by finding someone --- anyone --- to pose as her date. After a chance encounter with Reginald Cleaves, Amelia decides he's perfect for her purposes. For centuries-old vampire Reggie, posing as her plus-one sounds like the ultimate fun. And if it helps his ruse of pretending to be human, so much the better. As Amelia and Reggie practice their fauxmance, it becomes clear that Reggie is as loyal to her as the day is long, and that Amelia’s first impressions could not have been more wrong. Suddenly, being in a real relationship with Reggie sounds pretty fang-tastic.

When acclaimed naturalist Sy Montgomery and wildlife artist Matt Patterson arrive at Turtle Rescue League, they are greeted by hundreds of turtles recovering from injury and illness. Endangered by cars and highways, pollution and poachers, these turtles --- with wounds so severe that even veterinarians would have dismissed them as fatal --- are given a second chance at life. The League’s founders, Natasha and Alexxia, live by one motto: Never give up on a turtle. Ancient and unhurried, long-lived and majestic, their lineage stretches back to the time of the dinosaurs. Some live to 200 years or longer. Others spend months buried under cold winter water. Montgomery turns to these little understood yet endlessly surprising creatures to probe the eternal question: How can we make peace with our time?

In March 2020, Martha McPhee, her husband and their two children set out for her childhood home in New Jersey, where she finds herself grappling simultaneously with a mother slipping into severe dementia and a house that’s fallen into neglect. As Martha works to manage her mother’s care and the sprawling, ramshackle property --- a broken septic system, invasive bamboo, dying ash trees --- she is swept back, unwillingly, into memories of her fraught, dysfunctional childhood.

Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it. In Bamford’s signature voice, SURE, I’LL JOIN YOUR CULT brings us on a quest to participate in something. It explores what it means to keep going and to be a member of society (or any group she’s invited to), despite not being very good at it.

In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony and good humor, Donna Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned. Having celebrated her 80th birthday in 2023, Leon poignantly confronts the dual challenges and pleasures of aging. Complete with a brief letter dissuading those hoping to meet Guido Brunetti at the Questura, and always suffused with music, food and her sharp sense of humor, WANDERING THROUGH LIFE offers Donna Leon at her most personal.

Costa Rica, 1968. When a lethal fire erupts at the American Fruit Company’s most lucrative banana plantation burning all evidence of a massive cover-up, the future of Teresa Cepeda Valverde’s family is changed forever. Now, 27 years later, Teresa and her daughter, Lyra, are still picking up the pieces. Lyra wants nothing to do with Teresa but is desperate to find out what happened to her family that fateful night. Teresa, haunted by a missing husband and the bitter ghost of her mother, Amarga, is unable to reconcile the past. What unfolds is a story of a mother and daughter trying to forgive what they do not yet understand, and the mystery at the heart of one family’s rupture, steeped in machismo, jealousy, labor uprisings, and the havoc wreaked by banana plantations in Central America.

Following a confrontation with her reclusive great-grandfather, the one-time Wizard of Oz, Rainary Ko --- the granddaughter of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West --- has re-upped in a mission to settle a few scores and right a wrong or two. Her memory and her passions reviving, Rain turns her gaze back to her native Oz. Though the Grimmerie, which she had cast into the sea, retains its arcane power over her, the lover she left behind in Oz proves no less haunting. Traveling companions and arrivistes can befuddle a young witch coming into her own, but Rain marshals a steely determination to stare her troubles in the eye and see who blinks first.

Thirty-three-year-old Diana Helmuth is skeptical of organized religion. She is also skeptical of disorganized religion. But, more than anything, she is tired of God being dead. So she decides to try on the fastest growing, self-directed faith in America: Witchcraft. The result is 366 days of observation, trial, error, wit and back spasms. Witches today are often presented as confident and finished, proud and powerful. Diana is eager to join them. She wants to follow all the rules, memorize all the incantations and read all the liturgy. But there’s one glaring problem: no Witch can agree on what the right rules, liturgy and incantations are. As with life, Diana will have to define the craft for herself, looking past the fashionable and figuring out how to define the real.

In 1986, Syvert Løyning returns from the military to his mother’s home in southern Norway. One evening, his dead father comes to him in a dream. Realizing that he doesn’t really know who his father was, Syvert begins to investigate his life. What he learns changes his past and undermines the entire notion of who he is. But when his mother becomes ill, he no longer has time or space for lofty speculations. In present-day Russia, Alevtina Kotov, a biologist working at Moscow University, is traveling with her young son to the home of her stepfather to celebrate his 80th birthday. When she finally starts looking into her biological father, she learns that he died many years ago and left two sons, Joar and Syvert. Years later, when Syvert and Alevtina meet in Moscow, two very different approaches to life emerge.