Ian McEwan

In this survey Ian McEwan emerges as one of those rare writers whose works have received both popular and critical acclaim. His novels grace the bestseller lists, and he is well regarded by critics, both as a stylist and as a serious thinker about the function and capacities of narrative fiction.

Dominic Head is Professor of Modern English Literature in the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Introduction * Shock-Lit: The Short Stories and The Cement Garden * Dreams of captivity: The Comfort of Strangers * Towards the “Implicate Order”: The Child in Time * Unravelling the binaries: The Innocent and Black Dogs * ‘A Mess of Our Own Unmaking’: Enduring Love * Amsterdam: McEwan’s “Spoiler” * “The Wild and Inward Journey of Writing”: Atonement * “Accidents of Character and Circumstance”: Saturday * Conclusion: McEwan and the “Third Culture”