It is July 1962. Edward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come and, unbeknownst to them both, the events of the evening will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

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 includeThe 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; andNutshell, which was a Number One bestseller.AtonementandEnduring Lovehave both been turned into award-winning films,The Children ActandOn Chesil Beachare in production and set for release this year, and filming is currently underway for a BBC TV adaptation ofThe Child in Time.

The Sunday Times bestseller.