Awards
Winner of the 1998 Booker Prize
A Globe and Mail Notable Book of 1998
Synopses & Reviews
On a chilly February day, two old friends meet in the throng outside a London crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence: Clive is Britain's most successful modern composer, and Vernon is editor of the newspaper
The Judge. Gorgeous, feisty Molly had other lovers, too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger tipped to be the next prime minister.
In the days that follow Molly's funeral, Clive and Vernon will make a pact with consequences that neither could have foreseen. Each will make a disastrous moral decision, their friendship will be tested to its limits, and Julian Garmony will be fighting for his political life. A sharp contemporary morality tale, cleverly disguised as a comic novel, Amsterdam is "as sheerly enjoyable a book as one is likely to pick up this year" (The Washington Post Book World).
Review
"McEwan is a damned good writer....[B]ecause of the compulsive nature of McEwan's prose: you just don't want to stop reading it." The Guardian (UK)
Review
"Beautifully spare prose, wicked observation, and dark comic brio." The Boston Globe
Review
"By far his best work to date...an energizing tightrope between feeling and lack of feeling, between humanity's capacity to support and save and its equally ubiquitous penchant for detachment and cruelty." The San Diego Union-Tribune
Review
"A well-oiled machine....Ruthless and amusing." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"A dark tour de force...perfectly fashioned." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
"Ian McEwan has proven himself to be one of Britain's most distinct voices and one of its most versatile talents....Chilling and darkly comic." Chicago Tribune
About the Author
Ian McEwan has written two collections of short stories First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets as well as seven novels: The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers, The Child in Time, The Innocent, Black Dogs, The Daydreamer, and most recently, Enduring Love.