Less flashy than her compatriots and contemporaries Martin Amis and Julian Barnes, Pat Barker has, over the last couple of decades, been quietly building up a body of work that more than holds its own against theirs or that of any other writer of her generation. Her Regeneration trilogy, dealing with the First World War, is one of the most powerful pieces of fiction in recent years; its brilliant last volume, The Ghost Road, was awarded the Booker Prize. Her last novel Another World (1998) was an extraordinarily moving exploration of hatred and love between siblings.
In her new book Border Crossing,[1] Barker continues to probe many of the themes and questions she raised in Another World. Is anyone and everyone capable of committing an evil act? (The answer would seem to be yes.) Does an evil act make an evil person? Should an ordinary person, neither less nor more evil than others, be compelled to pay forever for the wrong committed in a moment? Why do some of us kill and others not—is it a matter of character, or might it simply be a matter of chance, or luck?
Such questions are urgent as we confront the current spate of school shootings and other killings by children with inadequate parental supervision and ready access to firearms. The get-tough attitude these tragedies have engendered has caused lawmakers to bypass the traditional route of juvenile or family court in favor of making young killers
