'THE SUPREME NOVELIST OF HIS GENERATION' SUNDAY TIMES
'Dazzling...The author's mature attention illuminates equally everything it falls on...Profound and urgent' OBSERVER
'A brilliant novel...It is McEwan writing on absolute top form' DAILY MAIL
Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man - a successful neurosurgeon, the devoted husband of Rosalind and proud father of two grown-up children. Unusually, he wakes before dawn, drawn to the window and filled with a growing unease. As he looks out at the night sky he is troubled by the state of the world - the impending war against Iraq, a gathering pessimism since 9/11, and a fear that his city and his happy family life are under threat.
Later, as Perowne makes his way through London streets filled with hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors, a minor car accident brings him into a confrontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive young man, on the edge of violence. To Perowne's professional eye, there appears to be something profoundly wrong with him. But it is not until Baxter makes a sudden appearance as the Perowne family gathers for a reunion that Henry's earlier fears seem about to be realised.
'He remains at the top of his game - assured, accomplished and ambitious' DAILY TELEGRAPH