Review
?A talented and genuinely imaginative writer, McEwan?s details often grow into strange, powerful images? the ironies, throughout this impressive collection are tellingly weighted.? -- Julian Barnes

?A brilliant performance? There?s an assured and terribly macabre depravity about Ian McEwan?s short stories? as if some of the characters from early Angus Wilson had been painted by Francis Bacon.? -- Anthony Thwaite, Observer

"Ian McEwan writes to shock and succeeds -- All his stories have a feeling of impending evil -- It is a tour de force of concision, and funny, too, in a deadpan manner." -- TLS

"A brilliant performance -- There's an assured and terribly macabre depravity about Ian McEwan's short stories -- as if some of the characters from early Angus Wilson had been painted by Francis Bacon." -- Observer

"His writing is exact, tender, funny, voluptuous, disturbing." -- The Times

"The Maestro." -- New Statesman

"McEwan has -- a style and a vision of life of his own...No one interested in the state and mood of contemporary Britain can afford not to read him." -- John Fowles

"A sparkling and adventurous writer." -- Dennis Potter


Book Description
Ian McEwan's Somerset Maugham Award-winning collection First Love, Last Rites brought him instant recognition as one of the most influential voices writing in England today. Taut, brooding, and densely atmospheric, these stories show us the ways in which murder can arise out of boredom, perversity can result from adolescent curiosity, and sheer evil might be the solution to unbearable loneliness. These tales are as horrifying as anything written by Clive Barker or Stephen King, but they are crafted with a lyricism and intensity that compel us to confront our secret kinship with the horrifying.

FROM THE PUBLISHER