The Child in Time - Ian McEwan

McEwan is one of the writers I admire the most right now, and the set pieces in this odd novel - a ghostly vision of the protagonist's parents as a courting couple, the tedium of a government committee, a happy ending - don't disappoint. In particular, the opening sequence in which a three year old girl is abducted from a supermarket shook me immensely, probably because I have a daughter that age myself.

The trouble is that there are other elements of the narrative that don't quite work, in particular an undercooked subplot about licensed beggars and an unlikely home visit from the Prime Minister. Even in the context of a sort-of-science-fiction-ish tale, this breaks the mood somewhat and disrupts the .

No matter. Ian McEwan is a fabulous stylist as well as a profound thinker, and I'm sad now that I have now read everything he's done, so I'll be waiting impatiently for his next publication.