Children Act

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.

Review: Compulsively readable... McEwan's prose keeps its cutting edge and his books are the ones the reading public still crave... A masterly balance between research and imagination... One feels an immediate pleasure in returning to prose of uncommon clarity, unshowiness and control * The Times *

Classic McEwan... It's a pleasure from start to finish, one not to be interrupted * Guardian *

A powerful, humane novel * Evening Standard *

One of the finest writers alive * Sunday Times *

McEwan writes as beautifully and elegantly as ever, his prose quintessentially English in its restraint, one meticulously chosen word hinting at depths of emotion * Washington Post *

A finely written, engaging read... Poignant, challenging and lyrical * Sunday Express *

A class act by one of our finest novelists. -- Viv Groskop * Red *

A compelling moral dilemma [with] a moving and heartfelt denouement. * Tatler *

Shows McEwan as a master of fiction. -- Olivia Cole * GQ *

It is one most extraordinary, powerful, moving reading experiences of my life. It is an utterly remarkable novel, delicately balanced, perfectly crafted, beautifully written. -- Alberto Manguel

Prizes: Long-listed for I.M.P.A.C. Dublin Award 2016 (UK).