Holy shit, this is one of my new favourite books EVER. I'm blown away, everybody should read this!
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Through a series of letters, Eva Khatchadourian evaluates her 18 year relationship with her son who, at 16, killed some of his classmates in a school shooting. It's a raw, controversial topic and Lionel Shriver tackles it in the most elegant way. The writing is fastidious (you won't like this if you don't like wordy books) and poignant, as the whole messy family dynamic comes out.
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I love this book for the cultural and social boundaries it shatters. Rarely do we read books where mothers admit to hating their children and freely list their reasoning for not wanting kids, how they feel during pregnancy, and their desire to keep their high-profile career over motherhood, and so much more. Within 468 pages, you become embroiled in whole thing to a point that feels beyond intimate. It raises a lot of questions about nature versus nurture and whether Eva could have stopped Kevin's atrocities or whether he was just an innately evil child. SERIOUSLY heavy stuff but incredible and poignant and more than worth the emotional read!
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I could wax lyrical about this book for days, but you should just read it and have your mind blown, okay?