WINNER OF THE ORANGE PRIZE read more Interactive online message board now live - visit here Reading group questions here (but don?t spoil the plot!) Read an extract --------------------- 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.
I recently saw the film of this book, and I loved it. The story follows Eva, a mother who has ended up in a terrible situation. The film had me feeling desperately sorry for Eva throughout, so this is pretty much what I expected from the book. The book turned out to be more complicated, and rather than seeming to explicitly control the feelings of the reader, the reader is more open to feel what they like. More than a few times this had me wondering if I was supposed to be thinking what I thought, and whether my emotions were 'correct'. The story is told through the letters Eva writes to her husband, and she isn't looking for pity, nor making excuses. We follow Eva's train of thought as she tries to de-construct the terrible thing that has happened. Yes, I did feel very sorry for Eva, but I also found myself wondering along with her whether she actually could have done anything differently. Whether, or to what extent, she is to blame. Without asking questions directly, the book planted plenty. To what extent can parents affect who a child ends up being? How responsible is one for the actions of ones children? This is a good story, and it is told very cleverly. It was different from what I expected having watched the film, but not in a bad way.
