Play Audiobook Sample
We Need to Talk About Kevin movie tie-in: A Novel Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
This audiobook is no longer available through the publisher and we don't know if or when it will become available again. Please check out similar audiobooks below, and click the "Vote this up!" button to let us know you're interested in this title. This audiobook has 1 votes
(4.00) - 43,635 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
""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)
Quotes
-
“This is heavy material, but Ms. Shriver tackles it with admirable panache, turning a sensational story into a troubling one.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“It’s always a challenge for a novelist to take on front-page events…And her fierceness and honesty sustain the narrative; this is an impressive novel.”
— New York Times -
“Sometimes searing…impossible to put down…The novel holds a mirror up to a whole culture. Who, in the end, needs to talk about Kevin? Maybe we all do.”
— Boston Globe -
“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.”
— Forbes -
“A book about the dangerous distance that exists between what we feel and what we are actually prepared to admit when it comes to family life…Could not be more timely.”
— Guardian (London) -
“Never letting up on the tension, Shriver ensures that, like Eva, the reader grapples with unhealed wounds.”
— Booklist (starred review)
Awards
-
A USA Today bestseller
-
Winner of the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction
We Need to Talk About Kevin movie tie-in Listener Reviews
-
" This was my favorite summer read in 2012! Although the beginning is a bit slow, once you get into the book, it's absolutely incredible. It forces you to ask yourself so many psychological questions that you probably hadn't considered before, and Lionel Shriver's writing is beautiful and captivating. This is definitely a must-read! "
— Emily, 2/14/2014 -
" I am going to keep my comments brief and to the point. One of the most powerful books I have read. Read it. "
— David, 2/11/2014 -
" Fantastic totally non-likeable characters that you actually grow to love. A brilliantly written book with an amazing twist. "
— Patsy, 1/28/2014 -
" wow. speechless. makes you think about the relationship between mother and child. "
— Terra, 12/28/2013 -
" I struggled with the writing style. But an adventure for our first book in The Village book club. "
— Cryss, 12/13/2013 -
" Wow. This book had me hooked. Superb writing. "
— Eloise, 11/9/2013 -
" Very well written, but an ugly and disturbing book. "
— Fdp, 10/5/2013 -
" I've never read another book like this one...a true original. Very good read; complex, 3 dimensional characters, and no easy answers. "
— Ilsa, 9/21/2013 -
" Great story. Easy read. Felt like a true story and not fiction. Brings to light issues that should be discussed. "
— Coley, 9/14/2013 -
" So powerful and honest I read it twice. "
— Rina, 5/17/2013 -
" Thought provoking. An interesting viewpoint of the role of a mother or the fears of women who have not yet become a mother. "
— Alicia, 5/7/2013 -
" Gripping,Disturbing and I could not put it down amazing story by a gifted mind...recommended but not if pregnant or trying to get pregnant! Stick to Dr Spock ! "
— Susan, 12/6/2012 -
" This story is so disturbing. It requires a lot of soul searching about oneself and the human race in its essence. I felt as though it was my duty to struggle through it - weird response, I know. "
— Jayne, 10/6/2012 -
" Author has interesting, engaging style. I think back on Kevin often. "
— Laura, 3/29/2012
About Lionel Shriver
Lionel Shriver is a novelist whose books include Orange Prize winner We Need to Talk about Kevin, The Post-Birthday World, A Perfectly Good Family, Game Control, Double Fault, The Female of the Species, Checker and the Derailleurs, and Ordinary Decent Criminals. She is widely published as a journalist, writing features, columns, op-eds, and book reviews for the London Guardian, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Economist, Marie Claire, and many other publications. She is frequently interviewed on television, radio, and in print media.
About Coleen Marlo
Coleen Marlo is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator who has been nominated for an Audie Award twice, winning in 2011. She has been awarded three Listen-Up Awards from Publishers Weekly, an AudioFile Audiobook of the Year Award in 2011, and was named Audiobook Narrator of the Year for 2010 by Publishers Weekly. She is a member of the prestigious Actors Studio and taught acting for ten years at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. Marlo is a proud founding member of Deyan Institute of Voice Artistry and Technology.