A mother's reckoning Living in the aftermath of tragedy

On the morning of April 20, 1999, author Klebold's son, Dylan, and his friend, Eric Harris, committed one of the worst school shootings in American history. They killed 12 fellow students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, and left 24 other people wounded before taking their own lives. Although her son was a smart, well-rounded, and generally happy child growing up, Klebold reveals in her memoir that on the day he was born, she remembers being "overcome by a strong premonition: this child would bring me a terrible sorrow." She writes of not knowing anything was amiss with Dylan until he was arrested (along with Harris) his junior year of high school for petty theft. Klebold's painful memoir unfolds with more sorrow than drama; readers will be left with the sense that even the "best" mother cannot know what her child may be feeling or thinking. Klebold lays her feelings of guilt here, and her profits from this book will be donated to foundations focusing on mental health issues. Copyright 2016 Booklist Reviews.

The author, whose son Dylan was one of two shooters who massacred 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in 1999, uses recollections, journals, and the profoundly disturbing writings and video recordings he left behind to reconstruct events and ask hard questions: Why did Dylan go so very wrong? And what could she have done? With a 200,000-copy first printing. [Page 55]. (c) Copyright 2015 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The mother of one of the two shooters at Columbine High School draws on personal recollections, journal entries, and video recordings to piece together what led to her son's unpredicted breakdown and shares insights into how other families might recognize warning signs.

The mother of one of the two shooters at Columbine High School draws on personal recollections, journal entries and video recordings to piece together what led to her son's unpredicted breakdown and share insights into how other families might recognize warning signs.

The acclaimed New York Times bestseller by Sue Klebold, mother of one of the Columbine shooters, about living in the aftermath of Columbine.On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill twelve students and a teacher and wound twenty-four others before taking their own lives.   For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan’s mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently?   These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In A Mother’s Reckoning, she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts.   Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, A Mother’s Reckoning is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent.  All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issues.— Washington Post, Best Memoirs of 2016