”He was twenty years old. As a boy he had never been attracted to the mindless aggression of men. He did not collect toy guns or turn everything he touched into a weapon, he saved birds that had fallen from their nests. He shared. And yet there he was in two-lane Texas, test-firing automatics on a narrow gun range with cigarette butts on the floor.” These are the words of rheumatologist Paul Allen, struggling to understand why his son has shot a presidential candidate. He has always thought of himself as a good father, but struggles to connect himself and his son to such a horrific crime. The writing is beautiful, searing in its honesty, and this book holds its own again other excellent books about parents who try to understand the horrific actions undertaken by their children – Defending Jacob by William Landay and We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Not often that such heartfelt writing can be classified as a thriller, but this one is special.
