Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin has a lot to answer for. In the months after its publication, it became the printed equivalent of holy communion: wheresoever two or three people gathered together to break bread, it was earnestly discussed.
Shriver’s novel explored the possibility that a child could be born wicked; further, that it would be entirely possible for the mother of such a child actively to dislike her progeny. Whether the author set out to satirise the current western obsession with child-rearing, or simply to tell rather a chilling tale of American family life, Shriver produced a very readable and polished story.
Now we need to talk about books, plays and films influenced by We Need to Talk About Kevin. Hoping to hit the same collective nerve as the bestselling Shriver, these are all stories about contemporary parents and children, and things going badly wrong.
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