The Child in Time

Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch

'Only Ian McEwan could write about loss with such telling honesty' Benedict Cumberbatch

On a routine trip to the supermarket with his daughter one Saturday morning, Stephen Lewis, a well-known writer of children's books, turns his back momentarily. When he looks around again, his child is gone. In a single moment, everything is changed. The kidnapping has a devastating effect on Stephen's life and marriage. Memories and the present become inseparable - as Stephen gets lost in daydreams of the past - and time bends back on itself, dragging Stephen's own childhood back into the present.

"Spooky...a wonderful novel" Observer

Ian McEwan is the critically acclaimed author of seventeen books. 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; and
Nutshell, which was a Number One bestseller.
Atonement and
Enduring Love have both been turned into award-winning films,
The Children Act and
On Chesil Beach are in production and set for release this year, and filming is currently underway for a BBC TV adaptation of
The Child in Time.