Short stories with Lionel Shriver

Orange Prize-winning novelist Lionel Shriver treats us to a short story reading.

Originally recorded as part of the event Short Stories with Lionel Shriver, the latest in our Short Stories series, author Lionel Shriver (We Need to Talk about Kevin and Big Brother) reads her short story Vermin. On performing her short stories Shriver says: “When it works I like [the works] better. I like being able to deliver a line well… It’s nice to be able to deliver passages in the spirit that I wrote them, so that you can hear them as I hear them.” In partnership with Pin Drop.

I think one of the powers of the short story form is what it allows you to leave out. It's more effective and in some ways more moving, more interesting, that you don't get all the details… you get a few clues.

Lionel Shriver

I think one of the powers of the short story form is what it allows you to leave out. It's more effective and in some ways more moving, more interesting, that you don't get all the details… you get a few clues.