Product Description

Kevin Khatchadourian killed several of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher, shortly before his sixteenth birthday. He is visited in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates in a series of letters to her estranged husband, Franklin, the story of Kevin's upbringing. A successsful career woman, Eva is reluctant to forgo her independence and the life she shares with Franklin to become a mother. Once Kevin is born, she experiences extreme alienation and dislike of Kevin as he grows up to become a spiteful and cruel child. When Kevin commits his murderous act, Eva fears that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become. But how much is she to blame?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #236 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-09
• Binding: Paperback
• 500 pages

Daily Telegraph, May 6, 2006
`Massive and gripping'

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

Lionel Dare
Lionel Shriver's epistolary novel "We Need To Talk About Kevin" recounts the childhood of Kevin Katchadourian through the eyes of his mother, Eva. Kevin commits mass murder at the age of 16, and through letters to her husband, Franklin, Eva attempts to find clues in his upbringing.

This is a complex, intelligent novel that asks more questions than it answers. The author never shies from controversial artistic choices. Kevin appears to be born a sociopath rather than made so through emotional neglect or abuse. Eva admits not bonding with her son. And, while some readers may end up frustrated by the conflicting perceptions in the book, I found it raised thought-provoking questions; the author cites enough examples of US high-school mass murders where the motives remain murky to back up her argument that there isn't always a simplistic answer to why teenagers can commit such atrocities.

On the negative side, I felt that Eva was not a sympathetic character, though there never appears to be any clear indication that she has passed on sociopathic tendencies to her son. And the fact that Kevin appears to be born bad rather than gets corrupted distracts us from the need to recognize that damaging family environments are the main cause of maladjustment - but that is the precisely the sentimental PC position that Eva would hate.

Verbose and dull

I realise I fall into the smaller category of people who didn't enjoy this book and I'll tell you why.
The book bored me - the language used was pretentious and far too lengthy.
The reason the book didn't get only one star from me is because I can appriciate there were moments in the book that I enjoyed, however, they was a great lack of them.
I was told before hand there was a twist - there wasn't. I think I realise what is intended to be the twist, but it wasn't anything surprising at all.
I hated the main character and I could not sympathise with her at all. She didn't deserve what she got, but her negitivity about every little thing became mind numbing and he dislike from Kevin the day he was born put me right off her.
If you can't stand verbose tedious writing, don't bother with this.

This Will Really Set You Thinking !
I can't praise this book enough, it's one of the best I've read. I must admit that I found the first few chapters, or rather letters from Eva to Franklin, a bit difficult to get into in that she examines and re-analyses so many fairly normal situations and decisions that most people make in everyday life. Once Eva and Franklin have made the decision to have a child and the child, Kevin, is born, (and I got used to her unusual writing style) the book really takes off. I won't go over the storyline again as so many other reviewers have done it better than I can but it seems that the whole point of Eva's over analysing of herself, motherhood and her son is to work out if she was at fault or was in any way to blame for how Kevin turned out with the horrific things he did, or, are some kids just born bad. I totally agree with some other reviewers that this is only written from Eva's perspective so there's no debate or dispute from Franklin, or indeed Kevin, to contradict any of what Eva has said in her letters. It's a must for any reading group as the perspective will be different for everyone - a great one to talk about, very thought provoking and well worth reading.