Please help us celebrate A Better Life, the edgy new novel by the acclaimed (and, to some, notorious) author Lionel Shriver. Known for taking on contentious contemporary issues, Shriver tackles her thorniest topic yet: immigration. Nearly all immigration fiction sympathizes with underdog newcomers. Shriver engages with the travails of the host population.
Packed with the raw, ferocious arguments that real people have about this subject behind closed doors, A Better Life is set in New York City during the migrant crisis of 2023–24, triggered by the Biden administration’s de facto open borders. Manifesting a program that Mayor Eric Adams floated but never initiated—to pay New Yorkers to put up migrants in their own homes—the novel portrays the fate of a progressive family in Ditmas Park that takes in one Honduran immigrant. Or one immigrant, to begin with . . .
The conversation will be moderated by Douglas Murray, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who revisits the incendiary themes of his 2017 nonfiction book, The Strange Death of Europe, the courageous candor of which justifiably made his distinguished career.
We hope you will join us for a drink, a lively discussion, and a reception thereafter.
Thursday, February 12, 2026
6:00 pm – 6:30 pm Opening Reception
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Speaking Program
7:30 pm – 8:00 pm Closing Reception
Midtown Manhattan
Address provided upon RSVP
Photo: CARLOS ALONZO / Contributor / AFP via Getty Images
