The Cement Garden

by Ian McEwan

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

After both their father and mother die, a group of four siblings must survive on their own. Told from the perspective of one of the brothers, 14-year-old Jack, we watch the siblings as they navigate difficult feelings and experiences. This was McEwan’s first novel, starting with a bang and dealing with some grim subjects. Even though the contents may be grim and haunting this novel shows the literary prowess of a talented author’s debut.

In this tour de force of psychological unease—now a major motion picture starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Sinead Cusack—McEwan excavates the ruins of childhood and uncovers things that most adults have spent a lifetime forgetting—or denying. "Possesses the suspense and chilling impact of Lord of the Flies."—Washington Post Book World.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780795302596
Publisher:	RosettaBooks
Publication date:	10/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	142,907
File size:	703 KB

About the Author

IAN MCEWAN is the critically acclaimed author of seventeen novels and two short story collections. 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, which was a number-one bestseller. Atonement, Enduring Love, The Children Act and On Chesil Beach have all been adapted for the big screen.

Hometown:

Oxford, England

Date of Birth:

June 21, 1948

Place of Birth:

Aldershot, England

Education:

B.A., University of Sussex, 1970; M.A., University of East Anglia, 1971

Website:

http://www.ianmcewan.com

Table of Contents

Play text

Editorial Reviews

A novel and a collection of short stories by English writer McEwan offer chilling portraits of sexual obsession. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"A shocking book, morbid, full of repellant imagery—and irresistibly readable.... The effect achieved by McEwan's quiet, precise and sensuous touch is that of magic realism—a transfiguration of the ordinary that has far stronger retinal and visceral impact than the flabby surrealism of so many experimental novels." —New York Review of Books

“Possesses the suspense and chilling impact of Lord of the Flies.” —Washington Post Book World

“Darkly impressive.” —The Times

“A superb achievement: his prose has instant, lucid beauty and his narrative voice has a perfect poise and certainty. His account of deprivation and survival is marvellously sure, and the imaginative alignment of his story is exactly right.” —Tom Paulin

“Marvellously creates the atmosphere of youngsters given that instant adulthood they all crave, where the ordinary takes on a mysterious glow and the extraordinary seems rather commonplace. It is difficult to fault the writing or the construction of this eerie fable.” —Sunday Times

"His writing is exact, tender, funny, voluptuous, disturbing." —The Times

"The Maestro." —New Statesman

"McEwan has—a style and a vision of life of his own...No one interested in the state and mood of contemporary Britain can afford not to read him." —John Fowles

"A sparkling and adventurous writer." —Dennis Potter

From the Publisher

The question is a familiar one: Are humans inherently good or bad? When left to his own devices, can a child form his own idea of morality? If so, what choices will he make? McEwan’s novel can only be described as chillingly sinister as its drama unfolds. The young narrator, Jack, becomes the man of the house after his parents pass away, and, as a result, he and his sisters are free to do as they please. Steven Crossley smoothly offers an almost detached, nonchalant reading of this uncomfortably squirm-inducing novel; his offhand rendering of Jack’s voice is simply perfect. Exposed to the horror of some of Jack’s choices, the listener feels like a witness to a crime--one from which it is difficult to turn away. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

DEC 03/JAN 04 - AudioFile