The second book of McEwan's I ever read after Enduring Love. One of his best but I preferred Enduring Love.

Caught at York Meetup

For those who like such things, here is the synopsis from Amazon:-
'On the hottest day of the summer of 1934, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge. By the end of that day, the lives of all three will have been changed for ever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not even imagined at its start, and will have become victims of the younger girl's imagination. Briony will have witnessed mysteries, and committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone.'

I do like McEwen's writing and enjoyed this book a lot. However, like most things, it is imperfect! I'm not sure about the plot, but with the excellence of McEwen's prose it hardly matters. The way he writes always brings Virginia Woolf to my mind. I did find myself getting a bit bored with Book 2 which deals with one of the character's experiences at Dunkirk. I'm not sure what this adds to the book as a whole. But to be fair it's not a subject I am interested in reading about. I think McEwen is excellent at evoking particular places and periods and I particularly enjoyed the section dealing with wartime London. The beginning of the novel has a 'country house' setting and he is pretty deft with that too. If you are looking for a book with a good 'story' then this is not it, but if you are looking for lovely writing then give it a go. McEwen is a sophisticated, accomplished writer, whatever his subject matter.

RELEASE NOTES:

picked up as a 'left-over' from the March Meet...

will probably give this one more chance to find another reader via. the York Meetup, before considering other options...

RELEASE NOTES:

(re)releasing, as promised...

I'm pretty sure I;ve not read any of his, but have heard people speak well of this so I will give it a go (once it rises to the top of the pile!)

I thought this was a wonderful book. It was beautifully written and I was particularly struck by how well he wrote as the 13 year old girl at the beginning. Without wanting to give anything away I found the last chapter particularly poignant, and immediately turned it into one of those books that makes you reflect on the entire preceding story and reflect differently on it.