The Child in Time Book Cover

The Child in Time


A General Fiction Novel

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Publisher Description

A child’s abduction sends a father reeling in this Whitbread Award-winning novel that explores time and loss.

Stephen Lewis, a successful author of children’s books, is on a routine trip to the supermarket with his three-year-old daughter. In a brief moment of distraction, she suddenly vanishes—and is irretrievably lost. From that moment, Lewis spirals into bereavement that affects his marriage, his psyche, and his relationship with time itself: “It was a wonder that there could be so much movement, so much purpose, all the time. He himself had none at all.”

In The Child in Time, acclaimed author Ian McEwan sets a story of domestic horror against a disorienting exploration in time producing a work of remarkable intellectual and political sophistication.

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