Book Mole: Border Crossing

Book Mole Larry Bowlden reviews Pat Barker’s novel, Border Crossing.  Published in 2001, Border Crossing investigates the crimes of particularly violent children, the notion of evil and the possibility of redemption.  Larry reports that it is a meticulously crafted novel about the relationship between a young man who committed murder at a young age and the psychologist whose expert-witness testimony helped put him in jail. Much like the intense psychological content of Barker's Regeneration trilogy, this is a detailed account of the internal turmoil of a boy who committs murder and a young man who, after he is released, attempts to sort out his life.