Kosinski’s Painted Bird is essentially a case study in human cruelty par excellence, in particular our propensity to scapegoat the other in times of extreme suffering, war or pestilence. It left a mark on me that I carry around with me to this day, in my mind and soul: an acute awareness of the mob mentality that can be activated in individuals who pride themselves as tolerant idealists. It is precisely the idealist who can be convinced as to the inherent ‘evil’ of the other, for the absolutist framing of reality is nothing new to idealists or ideologues alike. Visceral in its descriptions of physical and mental anguish, Painted Bird is an undeniable dissection of our darkest facets, ours, not someone else’s. I was lucky enough to have it on my set reading list in high school, and even if the imagery was partly hyperbolised by the author, the message was one of brutal honesty that cuts through the naive belief that ‘we’ can never become the barbarians.