Books with author Ian (author) McEwan

This slim, subtle, and devastating novella from Ian McEwan uses surgical precision to expose the psychological slips and physical mischances that threaten to ruin a young couple's happiness on their wedding night. The novel is set in the early 1960's, in a time when sexuality still had an aura of the arcane and forbidden, and Edward and Florence's first sexual encounter has become a source of anxiety and apprehension for both of them, though for very different reasons. With an adroit touch, McEwan traces the interpersonal feints and parries between the two young lovers, and shows how the slightest action or inaction can make a life skid toward tragedy.

In 1962, Florence and Edward celebrate their wedding in a hotel on the Dorset coast. Yet as they dine, the expectation of their marital duties weighs over them. And unbeknownst to both, the decisions they make this night will resonate throughout their lives. With exquisite prose, Ian McEwan creates in On Chesil Beach a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.

The official movie tie-in edition of Ian McEwan's exquisite, bestselling novel: the basis for the major motion picture starring Saoirse Ronan, Emily Watson, Anne-Marie Duff, and Samuel West.England, 1962: Florence and Edward are celebrating their wedding in a hotel on the Dorset coast. Yet as they dine, the expectation of their marital duties become overwhelming. Unbeknownst to them both, the decisions they make this night will resonate throughout their lives. With exquisite prose, Ian McEwan creates a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken--and brilliantly illuminates the collision of sexual longing, deep-seated fears, and romantic fantasy on a young couple's wedding night.

"Thanks to Ian McEwan's novel, we see that there are different kinds or levels of love. There is the conventional, everyday love of Joe and Clarissa meaningful, worthwhile, but in respects inward and fallible. There is the unhealthy, totally false eroticism of Jed, perhaps a parody of emotions to which we are all prey. There is carnal, selfish love of the professor and his student. There is the distrustful, jealous love of Logan's wife. And there is the saintly, healing, disinterested love of John Logan himself. This is the enduring love of which Saint Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 13. This is a love which sociobiology not only allows but which it argues is the true mark of our distinctive human nature. All in all, a fascinating work showing that the insights of science and the insights of religion can complement and reinforce, not oppose and destroy. Read it and see if you agree!" -- Review, Michael Ruse

Stephen Lewis, a successful writer of children's books, is confronted with the unthinkable: his only child, three-year-old Kate, is snatched from him in a supermarket. In one horrifying moment that replays itself over the years that follow, Stephen realizes his daughter is gone.With extraordinary tenderness and insight, Booker Prize-winning author Ian McEwan takes us into the dark territory of a marriage devastated by the loss of a child. Kate's absence sets Stephen and his wife, Julie, on diverging paths as they each struggle with a grief that only seems to intensify with the passage of time. Eloquent and passionate, the novel concludes in a triumphant scene of love and hope that gives full rein to the author's remarkable gifts.