2011 Top 10: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Final in a series of reviews of my 10 favorite books read in 2011 -- and the sole novel in the group.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, ©2003

The fictional biography of a family whose teen son carries out a school shooting, written as a series of letters from his mother to the husband from whom she’s now separated.

It’s a perfect storm of nature (a boy who’s a seeming sociopath from birth) and nurture (an incongruent mother; a permissive father in denial) combining to create a nightmare. Fascinating, disturbing, outstanding.