Great summer reads #6 – Enduring Love

Enduring Love (1997) is a novel by British writer Ian McEwan. It is regarded by many as one of McEwan’s best works, though was not shortlisted for the Booker Prize for fiction, an award that he would later win with Amsterdam.

It has been adapted for film and was released under the same name.

The book focuses on how the calm, organised life of science writer Joe Rose is shattered when he witnesses a tragic accident: a hot-air balloon with a boy trapped in its basket is being tossed by the wind, and in the attempt to save the child, a man is killed. A stranger named Jed Parry joins Rose in helping to bring the balloon to safety. But unknown to Rose, something passes between Parry and himself on that day-something that gives birth to an obsession in Parry so powerful that it will test the limits of Rose’s beloved rationalism, threaten the love of his wife, Clarissa, and drive him to the brink of murder and madness. Brilliant and compassionate, this is a novel of love, faith, and suspense, and of how life can change in an instant.

I loved it and I would also recommend two of Mc Ewan’s other novels, ‘Saturday’ and ‘Atonement’. ‘Atonement’ has been made into a film and it is playing in theatres at the moment.

~ by ncowie on December 9, 2007.