When I read this story on the couple who sued their thirty year old son for refusing to move out it made me jump, because it is a story that could have been plucked straight from Lionel Shriver’s fantastic collection of short stories: ‘Property’.

Indeed, in the story ‘Domestic Terrorism’ a couple faces the same predicament: their thirty-something year old son will not move out. He lacks drive and seems perfectly content to continue living at home. Frustrated with her ‘failed fledgling’ son, his mother takes drastic action to provide him with some impetus for action: she changes the locks in the hope that he will take it upon himself to get settled elsewhere. In an hilarious turn, he camps out on their front lawn and wins the sympathy of their neighbours.

At the heart of the collection is the theme of ‘Property’: what is ours,  what we think should be ours, etc. In ‘The Standing Chandelier’, a quirky artist makes a gift for a friend – a giant installation piece in the shape of a chandelier, much to the horror of her friend’s girlfriend. A man gets detained at an airport in the story ‘Chapstick’, with a closing paragraph that will make you gasp.

And I think it’s this swing and sway of emotions, from shock to sadness and back again, that really makes this collection special. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I think you will too.

‘Property’ by Lionel Shriver was published by Borough Press in April 2019, hardback £14.99.