Books from the Road: The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

Fans of Ian McEwan’s work: Atonement, The Cement Gardens, Saturday, and other works, should read The Child in Time.

The Child in Time is the story of Stephen Lewis, a British children’s writer, who goes to the grocery store with his 3-year-old daughter. It about how when Stephen looks away for a brief moment, Kate disappears. And it’s about one man’s struggle to continue living, figuratively and literally, and how he must renegotiate with life itself after he experiences every parent or child-care person’s worst nightmare.

This story isn’t a genre mystery. It’s not a determined-parent-searches-for-and-finds-missing-child story. It’s a father’s story, a perspective that is often overlooked in our matriarchal caretaker society, and that in and of itself makes it a unique read.

Ian McEwan is the master of minimalist emoting. McEwan’s work is so powerful because he always starts from the point of basic humanity, the knowing that we’ve all experienced joy, loss, pain, fear, and despair; he doesn’t waste time describing base emotions. For example, he only gives the moment when Stephen must tell his wife, Julie, that he lost their little girl only two pages. In those two pages, as Stephen enters their home where his wife is napping, steps over Kate’s discarded pajamas and waits, not wanting to wake his wife, Kate’s mother, bring her into the horror that is now their lives, we can feel his shame, his helplessness, his anguish. As a reader, it takes immense willpower to resist closing the book so the poor woman can continue dreaming, not force her to know what has occurred.

For readers who love strong literary writing, who like to explore deep emotions and traverse paths that take you into the heart of humanity, this book is for you.

Buy The Child in Time by Ian McEwan 

 

 

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