It is July 1962. Edward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come... Wonderful...exquisite...devastating * Independent on Sunday * Exquisitely crafted * Evening Standard * Superb... The protagonists have everything to lose, and their faltering journey towards a point of no return is conjured into life my McEwan with irresistible subtlety, tact and force * Financial Times *
On Chesil Beach is more than an event. It is a masterpiece -- Karl Miller * Times Literary Supplement * This is McEwan's mature style, one we have come to recognise from Atonement and Saturday. It is a polished, civilised style, and very distant from the shock tactics of his early work... McEwan brings Florence and Edward touchingly alive for us; and their seriousness, their idealism, and their desire for love draw us towards them -- Natasha Walter * Guardian * To commend an author for being reminiscent of Edith Wharton is a compliment that this reviewer reserves for a select few. Yet with
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan has earnt it -- Lionel Shriver * Telegraph * A master feat of concentration in both senses of the word -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times * Written with a fierce pursuit of the truth and an utterly modern self-awareness, what a confidant tour de force this turns out to be * Sunday Express * One of our greatest living writers. Many Easter weekends and train journeys will be enlivened by a compelling novella -- Christopher Dolan * Herald * It is a masterpiece. The very idea that informs it, fascinating and unfamiliar, is masterly -- Karl Miller * TLS *
On Chesil Beach