The Child in Time

Ian McEwan is one of the “ruling triumvirate” of contemporary British prose (along with Julian Barnes and Martin Amis) and a Booker Prize laureate for the novel “Amsterdam.” A three-year-old daughter of children’s author Stephen Lewis unexpectedly and inexplicably disappears from a supermarket. This loss turns Stephen’s entire life upside down and demonstrates to him, in the most vivid way, that his daughter was the only meaning of his life. Stephen’s personal drama unfolds against the relentless flow of time, which begins a strange battle with the main character. Only gradually does Stephen understand that it isn’t a person who controls their time, but time rules over people— the time of conception and the time of birth, the time of growth and the time of adulthood—in short, time as a mysterious, impersonal, and all-powerful force that can’t be guided, but can only be challenged by overcoming oneself.