The Child in TimePaperback, 2 November 1999

With extraordinary tenderness and insight, the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement takes us into the dark territory of a marriage devastated by the loss of a child.

Stephen Lewis, a successful writer of children's books, is confronted with the unthinkable: his only child, three-year-old Kate, is snatched from him in a supermarket. In one horrifying moment that replays itself over the years that follow, Stephen realizes his daughter is gone.

Kate's absence sets Stephen and his wife, Julie, on diverging paths as they each struggle with a grief that only seems to intensify with the passage of time. Eloquent and passionate, the novel concludes in a triumphant scene of love and hope that gives full rein to the author's remarkable gifts. The Child in Time is an astonishing novel by one of the finest writers of his generation.

Don't miss Ian McEwan's new novel, Lessons, available now.