Product Description

WINNER OF THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION 2005 Two years ago, Eva Khatchadourian?s son, Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker, and a popular algebra teacher. Because he was only fifteen at the time of the killings, he received a lenient sentence and is now in a prison for young offenders in upstate New York. Telling the story of Kevin's upbringing, Eva addresses herself to her estranged husband through a series of letters. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about both motherhood in general and Kevin in particular. How much is her fault? Lionel Shriver tells a compelling, absorbing, and resonant story while framing these horrifying tableaux of teenage carnage as metaphors for the larger tragedy - the tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2657 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 500 pages

Review
"'An awesomely smart, stylish and pitiless achievement' Independent 'Taps into unspoken fears of maternal ambivalence that are not easily acknowledged and do not fit neatly into glossy magazine notions of female empowerment' Guardian Unlimited 'Harrowing, tense and thought-provoking, this is a vocal challenge to every accepted parenting manual you've ever read' Daily Mail 'An elegant psychological and philosophical investigation of culpability with a brilliant denouement' Observer 'As a mother of two, reading Lionel Shriver's novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin was a comfort and a revelation' Jenni Murray, BBC Women's Hour"

The Sunday Times (Culture), May 7, 2006
‘Urgent, unblinking and articulate fiction’

The Guardian, 6th May, 2006
‘Cleverly balances the grand guignol and the mundane’

Customer Reviews

One of the best books I've read
I saw this book on BBC1's Page Turners and so decided to buy it. This novel is absolutely brilliant, I cannot recommend it enough.
The story is narrated by Eva, in letter form, as she writes to her estranged husband. Eva's son, Kevin, is in a juvenile detention centre, as at the age of 15yrs he went on a killing spree at his high school. He killed 7 fellow students, a teacher and a cafeteria worker. Through Eva's letters, the reader is taken through Kevin and her story, going right back into their past, even before Kevin was born. As Eva spills her heart out onto the paper, you are struck by how she is debating the point of just how to blame, if at all, she is for Kevin's actions.

The exploration of the past, especially Eva's relationship with her husband, brings up many areas of life and truth that are often not spoken about. This, I think, is why this novel is so good; the book is not just about Kevin's terrible crime. The dynamics of Eva and Frianklin's relationship are also explored, both as a young couple and as a family once Kevin is born.

This novel really does stay with you long after you have finished the last page. The ideas, suggestions and debates it raises are complex and intriguing, something to really get your teeth into.
This is a great book, one of the best I have read, and that really is saying something.

A gripping story
This book is very well written. Contrary to other reviews of this book, I think it is a strength in the novel that Eva does not always inspire empathy in the reader. Eva is a terrifically well rounded, believable and flawed character. The book is in the form of letters to her husband trying to rationalise the tragic killings performed by her son. I think it is in trying to rationalise why Kevin committed such atrocities that Eva questions her role as a mother... is it because she didn't really want a baby, because she couldn't bond with Kevin after he was born, because she wanted a career or was Kevin just born inherently evil?

This book is gripping from beginning to end, thought provoking, funny, scary and sad... well worth a read.

Well worth reading
The story is quite a simple one and unfortunately so appropriate for the age we live in. On the eve of his 16th birthday Kevin Katchadourian kills several classmates, a teacher and a cafeteria worker. This book is written in the form of letters from Kevin's mother Eva to her husband Franklin from whom she is now separated. Eva starts her letters from the very beginning - when she and Franklin first met. She then charts how her life changed when she became pregnant and the mixed feelings she had about her pregnancy and subsequent birth of her son, Kevin.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the first few chapters of `We Need to Talk About Kevin' hard going because I have to admit that after all the raving I'd read about this book I almost gave up before I'd barely begun. But I'm glad I stuck with it as it was a thoroughly gripping story once you got into the swing of it. The bottom line is the debate about whether a child is born evil or conditioned that way because of some failing on the part of the parents. When you read Eva's account of how she first felt about her son you wonder who was really to blame for the events of Thursday. As you only get one side of the story you do however wonder how much of Eva's story is focused on exonerating herself from blame.

`We Need to Talk About Kevin' is definitely a book worth reading but I wouldn't say it's the book of 2006. The jury is still out on what is the book of 2006 for me but I think this book would fall into my top 10 at least.