Saturday

A masterful Ian McEwan explores the incredible fragility of existence, as he charts one hugely eventful day in the life of a middle-aged neurosurgeon.Henry Perowne, a successful neurosurgeon, watches a plane - ablaze with fire like a meteor - arcing across the London dawn. His unease grows throughout the day as he moves amongst hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors in the post-9/11 streets. A minor car accident leads to a meeting with Baxter, who to Perowne’s professional eye appears to be profoundly unwell. And when Baxter makes a sudden appearance at the Perowne family home all Henry’s earlier fears seem about to be realised..."None of this is in itself remarkable, but McEwan’s examination of the minute workings of conscience and personality is thrillingly shrewd... In other hands, this could become maddeningly flashy, a torrent of clever aperçus and topical graffiti. But McEwan’s style has long been skewed towards understatement; even when he’s itemising the details of a craniotomy. In Saturday he is at his best - thoughtful, eloquent, yet restrained. The novel has all the technical assurance of its predecessors and suggests as well a newly political sensibility and seductive, Joycean attention to the textures of normality." - Henry Hitchings, Financial TimesIan 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; Nutshell; and Machines Like Me. SUMMARY: In his triumphant new novel, Ian McEwan, the bestselling author of Atonement, follows an ordinary man through a Saturday whose high promise gradually turns nightmarish. Henry Perowne–a neurosurgeon, urbane, privileged, deeply in love with his wife and grown-up children–plans to play a game of squash, visit his elderly mother, and cook dinner for his family. But after a minor traffic accident leads to an unsettling confrontation, Perowne must set aside his plans and summon a strength greater than he knew he had in order to preserve the life that is dear to him. Saturday, February 15th, 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 With Iraq, A Gathering Pessimism Since 9/11, And A Fear That His City And His Happy Family Life Are Under Threat. Ian Mcewan.