We need to talk about Kevin

What do you do when your son kills 9 people in his school? Is it always the parents' fault? Can children be born evil?

We need to talk about Kevin (Lionel Shriver) is a book which is hard to describe without reverting to cliches: indescribable... harrowing... profound... It must be beyond a parent's worst nightmare: your life ruined by a school shooting - and your child the perpetrator.

I read too fast. I'm too keen to see how the story goes - What Happens Next - to be patient enough to enjoy the telling. 'Savouring' a book is an idea I have never been able to put into practice.

But this book is beautiful and so I tried. A collection of letters from a woman to her estranged husband, about their son. The descriptive power of the prose is immense. Lionel Shriver's ability to describe emotions, experiences and surrounding make this book rich.

For me, part of what satisfies is the questioning of the sanctity of motherhood. Eva questions whether they should have had a child. This is novel. It refutes the normal line from parents: I felt like you, once upon a time, but this was the best thing I could have ever done. There isn't room in the parental self-image (and maybe rightly) for saying that maybe your child isn't worth it. Maybe your life isn't the way you want it to be.

There's also something about love in here - loving someone as they are, not as you want them to be. Looking beyond who you would like someone to be, your ideal picture, and seeing the person who is there.

This is a painful and unpleasant story. But one which is beautifully written and worth reading.

Now go and read it...