Ian McEwan

Fiona Maye is a respected High Court judge, renowned for her exactitude and calm professionalism. But when her husband of 30 years standing shocks her with an unreasonable request, she finds her life in crisis. At precisely the same time, she is ordered to try a new case. It is an urgent matter of life and death, bringing science and religion into direct conflict - and at its centre is a beautiful adolescent boy with the whole of his life ahead of...

Totally compelling and utterly convincing, 'Enduring Love' is the story of how an ordinary man can be driven to the brink of murder and madness by another's delusions.

As their holiday unfolds, Colin and Maria are locked tightly in their own intimacy. Then they meet a man with a disturbing story to tell, and, almost against their will, Colin and Maria are drawn into a fantasy of violence and obsession.

Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home - a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse - but not with John. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy's womb.

Lessons is an intimate yet universal story of love, regret and a restless search for answers. While the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has descended, young Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Stranded at boarding school, his vulnerability attracts his piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Twenty-five years later, as the radiation from the...

'Atonement' is the novel for which Ian McEwan will always be remembered. Enthralling in its depiction of childhood, love and war, class and England, at its centre is a profound and profoundly moving exploration of shame and forgiveness.