ISBN: 9780099520825

Synopsis Ian McEwan is the author of two collection of stories, six novels and a story for children. His first published work, a collection of short stories called First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, The Cement Garden, Enduring Love and Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize. He lives in Oxford

Bookclub Review Opinion was sharply divided on this book. Some people loved it, finding the story insightful and magical with a good feel for early 60s attitudes. Others thought it lazy and boring with too few layers. Those who didn’t like it, expressed the opinion that it was a short story stretched beyond its limits. One person felt it was a direct rip-off of Joyce Carol Oates’ ‘The Falls’. Several people commented that the aftermath of the story was only seen from the male character’s perspective. The group made mostly unfavourable comparisons with McEwan’s earlier works like ‘Atonement’, ‘Enduring Love’ and ‘Saturday’. The only thing everyone agreed on was that McEwan is clearly a great writer. It was suggested though that he had fallen into a common trap for best selling authors: rushing a book out to meet public demand.