The Children Act

Re-jacketed in stunning new series style for 2023, The Children Act is a brilliant, emotionally wrenching novel from the Booker prize-winning, multi-million copy bestselling Ian McEwanA 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.

Long-listed for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2016 (UK)

“A wonderfully readable and thought-provoking book”

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
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
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
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

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.

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