I loved this - what a heartbreaking picture of a family
A man is atop a building in Helsinki shooting at innocent pedestrians below, but why?
This book delves back into a family's past to try and examine what leads up to this event.
A keen environmentalist mother, who was always ambivalent about having kids, a father who's often abroad redesigning waste spaces into kids playgrounds, an elder sister trying to find her space in the world and a son.
A son who has always been "different" - we learn that he has been depressed but, reading between the lines, you also assume that he has a social disorder/autism - in any case he's never really fitted in and has become a loner in adulthood.
He develops friendships online and is drawn into a global movement to cleanse the world as it is over populated. The planet is dying under the weight of all it's inhabitants.
It feels so so relevant in the current climate - particularly in the wake of the recent shooting incident in Las Vegas - and I literally couldn't put it down. It's not often I devour a book within the space of an afternoon but this just grabbed me by the throat and willed me to continue.
You end up feeling a weight of sadness and sympathy (ironically particularly for the son) and overwhelmingly a feeling that this was nobody's fault - apart from the terrorist scumbug who led the son into taking such dreadful actions.
This book delves back into a family's past to try and examine what leads up to this event.
A keen environmentalist mother, who was always ambivalent about having kids, a father who's often abroad redesigning waste spaces into kids playgrounds, an elder sister trying to find her space in the world and a son.
A son who has always been "different" - we learn that he has been depressed but, reading between the lines, you also assume that he has a social disorder/autism - in any case he's never really fitted in and has become a loner in adulthood.
He develops friendships online and is drawn into a global movement to cleanse the world as it is over populated. The planet is dying under the weight of all it's inhabitants.
It feels so so relevant in the current climate - particularly in the wake of the recent shooting incident in Las Vegas - and I literally couldn't put it down. It's not often I devour a book within the space of an afternoon but this just grabbed me by the throat and willed me to continue.
You end up feeling a weight of sadness and sympathy (ironically particularly for the son) and overwhelmingly a feeling that this was nobody's fault - apart from the terrorist scumbug who led the son into taking such dreadful actions.