Border Crossing

I've been meaning to read something by Pat Barker for a long time, having heard so much positive feedback about the Regeneration Trilogy. Border Crossing didn't live up to my expectations. It focuses on a young man, Danny, who spent twelve years in a correctional institute for killing an elderly neighbour when he was just ten years old. But the story is really about Tom, a psychologist who assessed Danny prior to his court appearance. Danny has been released from prison, is living under an assumed name and identity and through coincidence?? meets up with Tom again. Danny is charmingly manipulative and shallow (they used to call people like this sociopaths). Perhaps because I worked so long with troubled children I found the book superficial and wouldn't recommend it. We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver is, I think, a better, if more sensational, examination of a deeply troubled boy who commits violence. It left me feeling disturbed and even, as the mother of two boys, a little guilty. A book about youth violence should make one cringe and reflect. Border Crossing left me neutral.