A book with very good reviews - and featured on BBC 1's Page Turners (which for me was on at the wrong time of day since I work! Heard very little about it).

From Amazon:

Book Description
Nature or nurture: what makes a monster?
Tackling the ultimate tabooo - that a mother can't dislike her own child -Lionel Shriver has written a brutally compelling book that encourages the reader to engage with a most contested moral dilemma.
'Elegant investigation...with a brilliant denouement' Observer --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Synopsis
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.

This was passed to me for bookcrossing by a friend...not sure if it's my kind of book, so will mark it available for anyone who would like it!

A book I don't think I would have normally have read given the fact it's about a mass murderer. However I really did enjoy it - quite fascinating & I couldn't put it down!

Just started out on a BookRing.


Jenatleisure
Rainbow1054 (skipped)
Helly77
Piiku
herrgirl
Chelseagirl
Mellowdaisy
LindaB28 (asked to be skipped)
marie-therese
SwanOfKennet<.....book here
isisjem
pam99
milliejinx
flanners
Jane64bd
moontree
Griffett
teachie
tanis
anna1000
wubbaducky
normy
willowfae
maidsmum

picked this up from Molyneux
when I saw her mid November, but only just getting round to journalling it now.
Rainbow asked to be skip so Im going to contact helly

received safe and well this morning.... Will read asap, have been looking forward to it!!
Piku doesnt appear to exist anymore, so let me know what to do with this next :)

ETA:
okay, it appears that iku is actually Piiku.... i have the address and will mail it as soonas i have finished :)

i found this quite difficult to read, but once I had got into it I did find it quite gripping. I am very glad that I have read it.

Thanks for sharing.... I will post it to Piiku asap :D

RELEASE NOTES:

sorry about the delay, but this is now on the way to Piiku :D

RELEASE NOTES:

sorry about the delay, but this is now on the way to Piiku :D

It's here, thanks!

I have tried to start reading the book a couple of times, but it simply is too difficult for me. It's possible that I will find a copy and read it later (it still sounds interesting!), but I will not stall this ring. I already have herrgirl's address, will mail the book tomorrow.

Received today from Piiku, thank you for sending it on, so beautifully packaged. And thank you for the little extras that came with it. I shall enjoy looking at the book on Turku and reliving the time I spent in Finland.

This is a dark, gripping tale, which explores the troubled relationship between a mother and her son, and the guilt it brings her. Eva admits to feeling alienated from the son she is expected by society to love unconditionally and who seems from birth to reciprocate those feelings. In her letters to her estranged husband, Eva goes methodically through events in her life before and after Kevin's birth, hiding nothing. She has in fact nothing to lose by her honest revelations as she has already lost everything. At the end she has no more idea than we as readers do as to why Kevin did what he did.

Not a feel-good book by any stretch of the imagination, but an intriguing one with a twist which I didn't anticipate.

Chelseagirl has already read this, so it will be on its way to mellowdaisy as soon as I get her address.

This arrived this morning, thank you for sending it to me herrgirl and thank you for starting the ring Molyneux. I hope to get round to this soon but I have about 4 ring books before it! If I can't get it read in time then I will PM people and get something sorted.

Well, I must say I found this quite hard to get into at the beginning and was slighty disappointed because I'd heard good things about this book. However, I did get into it and found myself not wanting to put it down as I wanted to find out more and more about Kevin and what happened in the lead up to that dreadful day and throughout his childhood. I felt more and more sad that he was the way he was but there was some comfort in that it seems he had an underlying love for his mother which he eventually did show, although I'm sure that's not the circumstances a mother would want to realise that! I agree about the twist though - I didn't see it coming and had to check back a few pages to make sure what I'd read was right, I found it hard to believe but then realised that it explained a few things!

I won't say anymore for fear of spoiling it for those who haven't read it! I've PMed marie-therese and will get this sent on as soon as I can.

recieved today from mellowdaisy, thanks for posting it to me :o) Really looking forward to reading this one, however, I've another 2 bookrings to get through first but will send it on it's way again as soon as I can.

Wow what a book!! and I have the dark circles under my eyes to prove it - was up till after 3am finishing it (not a good idea when I'm off to Warsaw for a 4 day trip in half an hour and feel like a zombie!!)

I have to say this is probably the best book I've read this year. It really got me thinking, I even found myself discussing it with my BF, my hairdresser, my Mum. The whole nature/nurture thing intrigues me and I found myself looking at the events in the book from different viewpoints, as a mother, an (ex) kindergarten teacher and even as a midwife as the relationship between Kevin and Eva started to go sour right from birth. I wasn't totally shocked by the ending in fact I was probably expecting it. Most of the book I saw Kevin as a little b*****d but there were a few times where I thought it was Eva who had the biggest problem.

All in all an absolutely fantastic read, thanks to Molyneux for sharing. As I said I'm just about to head off to Poland but I'll PM SwanofKennet and get it off to her as soon as I get back.

Posted off to SwanOfKennet today.

This arrived on Saturday morning but I had visiors and got distracted, so it's waited until now to be journalled.