Almost halfway through "The Bleeding Heart," by Lionel Shriver (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 427 pages, $22.95), the narrator explains the cause of the world's troubles: "As you are in pieces, so your cities shall fragment." In this novel and in two previous novels, Ms. Shriver suggests that streets are in shambles because people make the world in their own image. In the 20th century, this image reflects a fragmented self. Ms. Shriver, like many contemporary novelists, holds a mirror up to that self. The effect of these novels isn't so much entertainment as it is discovery.
Set in Belfast, a city at war with itself, the novel opens as Farrell O'Phelan has just ended a 20-year career deactivating bombs. Farrell lives on the edge. Born in Northern Ireland to a demanding mother and a weak father, Farrell had dreamed of becoming a priest. Violence destroyed those dreams.
Now, Farrell, in his late middle age, falls in love with Estrin Lancaster, 32, an American who, like Farrell, refuses to take sides. For Estrin, the Nationalists and Unionists of Belfast are warring "fragments." Much of the novel explains those wars and demonstrates their bloody effects. The climax occurs when Farrell organizes an election to bring peace; the results bring tragedy. Focusing on ill-fated lives and misbegotten love, the novel describes attempts to work out what Estrin calls a "real" life. But as this stunning and horrifying novel sees it, people live a lie. When they learn that truth, it's often too late.
