A brilliant, emotionally wrenching new novel from the author ofAtonementandAmsterdam.

Fiona Maye, a leading High Court judge, renowned for her fierce intelligence and sensitivity is called on to try an urgent case. For religious reasons, a seventeen-year-old boy is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life. Time is running out.

She visits the boy in hospital an encounter which stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. But it is Fiona who must ultimately decide whether he lives or dies and her judgement will have momentous consequences for them both.

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.

A brilliant, emotionally wrenching new novel from the author of Atonement and Amsterdam.