The Children Act

Description

Re-jacketed in stunning new series style, The Children Act is a brilliant, emotionally wrenching novel from the Booker prize-winning, Sunday Times-bestselling Ian McEwan A brilliant, emotionally wrenching new novel from the author of Atonement and Amsterdam. Fiona Maye, a leading High Court judge, renowned for her fierce intelligence and sensitivity is called on to try an urgent case. For religious reasons, a seventeen-year-old boy is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life. Time is running out. She visits the boy in hospital - an encounter which stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. But it is Fiona who must ultimately decide whether he lives or dies and her judgement will have momentous consequences for them both.

Ian McEwan is the critically acclaimed author of seventeen books. His first published work, a collection of short stories, 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; Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize; Atonement; Saturday; On Chesil Beach; Solar; Sweet Tooth; The Children Act; and Nutshell, which was a Number One bestseller. Atonement and Enduring Love have both been turned into award-winning films, The Children Act and On Chesil Beach are in production and set for release this year, and filming is currently underway for a BBC TV adaptation of The Child in Time.

Fascinatingly complex and finally heartbreaking... A quite beautiful work of fiction. * The Times * Fascinatingly complex and finally heartbreaking... A quite beautiful work of fiction. * The Times * Another notable volume from one of the finest writers alive. * Washington Post * Another notable volume from one of the finest writers alive. * Washington Post * A masterclass in the power of precision and restraint ... McEwan is brilliant on the details that form the backdrop to public and private tragedy. * The Sunday Times * A masterclass in the power of precision and restraint ... McEwan is brilliant on the details that form the backdrop to public and private tragedy. * The Sunday Times * A classic McEwan novella, swift and compelling, asking to be read in a single sitting despite its 200-odd pages... He makes it look simple yet few other writers have anything like his mastery of such prose... So skillfully composed and fluently performed, it's a pleasure from start to finish, one not to be interrupted. * Evening Standard * A classic McEwan novella, swift and compelling, asking to be read in a single sitting despite its 200-odd pages... He makes it look simple yet few other writers have anything like his mastery of such prose... So skillfully composed and fluently performed, it's a pleasure from start to finish, one not to be interrupted. * Evening Standard * The Children Act is in part a tribute to the best of the legal profession and, as a wordsmith, his deep respect for the best of their prose... The book has some landmark McEwan features of skillfully created tension. * Lancet * The Children Act is in part a tribute to the best of the legal profession and, as a wordsmith, his deep respect for the best of their prose... The book has some landmark McEwan features of skillfully created tension. * Lancet * In typical McEwan style, The Children Act is unputdownable and hauntingly beautiful. * Khaleej Times * In typical McEwan style, The Children Act is unputdownable and hauntingly beautiful. * Khaleej Times * The Children Act is a...sophisticated exploration of how society treats children and how children's welfare can be considered in the complex world in which we live, where issues about how children should be raised are not subject to consensus. * Legal Action * The Children Act is a...sophisticated exploration of how society treats children and how children's welfare can be considered in the complex world in which we live, where issues about how children should be raised are not subject to consensus. * Legal Action * A wonderfully readable and thought-provoking book -- Kathryn Atkins * Bristol Magazine * A short novel that will linger in your mind for a long time * Woman's Weekly * Another beautifully written masterpiece * Beyond * relevant, emotive, moving, this is beautifully written and a guaranteed page turner -- Matthew Smith * H Edition * One of our best authors at his best. -- Murray Neil * Hertfordshire Life * One of my favourite authors... McEwan's fascination with judicial issues, with music and poetry, and with the moral conundrum of how far you place your religious beliefs above the life of someone you love, all feature in this book which will leave you thinking long after you have finished it. -- Frances Colville * Frost Magazine * It's an enjoyable and often surprising novella. -- Charlotte Heathcote * Daily Express * It asks fundamental questions in a sober, intelligent way about the choices we make and our blindness when it comes to our beliefs. -- Francois Ozon, film-maker * Observer * Here he is again: vulnerable, insightful, passionate and utterly in control. He's amazing. -- Robert Webb * Mail on Sunday *