"Impossible to put down. . . . Who, in the end, needs to talk about Kevin? Maybe we all do.” — Boston Globe
Acclaimed author Lionel Shriver's gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry
Shriver’s resonant story of a mother’s unsettling quest to understand her teenage son’s deadly violence, her own ambivalence toward motherhood, and the explosive link between them reverberates with the haunting power of high hopes shattered by dark realities.
Eva never really wanted to be a mother—and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin’s horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
Like Shriver’s charged and incisive later novels, including So Much for That and The Post-Birthday World, We Need to Talk About Kevin is a piercing, unforgettable, and penetrating exploration of violence, family ties, and responsibility.
Download and start listening now!
"OMG this was can't-put-down good, but so creepy and disturbing. If I hadn't stayed up late reading it, I think I would have been up anyway hiding under the covers. Set following a Columbine-like massacre, the narrator is the killer's mother, reflecting back over his childhood and trying to understand why and whether it was her fault. I've been on a "Nature Vs. Nurture" reading kick lately, and while this novel doesn't answer the (unanswerable) question, it certainly gives a lot of thought-provoking material for contemplation. Only once I was a parent did I truly realize how little control we have over our kids' temperaments. I got an easy one, but it's not too difficult to imagine being in way over my head with a more challenging kid."
—
Wendy (4 out of 5 stars)