In this tour de force of psychological unease—now a major motion picture starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Sinead Cusack—McEwan excavates the ruins of childhood and uncovers things that most adults have spent a lifetime forgetting—or denying. "Possesses the suspense and chilling impact of Lord of the Flies."—Washington Post Book World.
From the Publisher
Darkly impressive.” — The Times“A superb achievement: his prose has instant, lucid beauty and his narrative voice has a perfect poise and certainty. His account of deprivation and survival is marvellously sure, and the imaginative alignment of his story is exactly right.” — Tom Paulin
“Marvellously creates the atmosphere of youngsters given that instant adulthood they all crave, where the ordinary takes on a mysterious glow and the extraordinary seems rather commonplace. It is difficult to fault the writing or the construction of this eerie fable.” — Sunday Times
"A shocking book, morbid, full of repellant imagery - and irresistibly readable...The effect achieved by McEwan's quiet, precise and sensuous touch is that of magic realism — a transfiguration of the ordinary that has far stronger retinal and visceral impact than the flabby surrealism of so many experimental novels." — New York Review of Books
"His writing is exact, tender, funny, voluptuous, disturbing." — The Times
"The Maestro." — New Statesman
"McEwan has—a style and a vision of life of his own...No one interested in the state and mood of contemporary Britain can afford not to read him." — John Fowles
"A sparkling and adventurous writer." — Dennis Potter
