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Saturday

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What to expect

Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man - a successful neurosurgeon, the devoted husband of Rosalind and proud father of two grown-up children. Unusually, he wakes before dawn, drawn to the window of his bedroom and filled with a growing unease. What troubles him as he looks out at the night sky is the state of the world - the impending war against Iraq, a gathering pessimism since 9/11, and a fear that his city and his happy family life are under threat.

Later, Perowne makes his way to his weekly squash game through London streets filled with hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors. A minor car accident brings him into a confrontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive, young man, on the edge of violence. To Perowne's professional eye, there appears to be something profoundly wrong with him.

Towards the end of a day rich in incident and filled with Perowne's celebrations of life's pleasures, his family gathers for a reunion. But with the sudden appearance of Baxter, Perowne's earlier fears seem about to be realised.

Critics Review

Dazzling. Profound and urgent
Observer
The supreme novelist of his generation
Sunday Times
He remains at the top of his game - assured, accomplished and ambitious
Daily Telegraph
Richly laden. McEwan pulls out all the stops. A rich book, sensuous and thoughtful. McEwan has found in Saturday the right form to showcase his dazzling talents
Sunday Telegraph
A book of great moral maturity, beautifully alive to the fragility of happiness and all forms of violence... Everyone should read Saturday... Artistically, morally and politically, he excels
The Times
It's the good writing and the truthful and convincing way of rendering consciousness that makes Saturday so engrossing
Colm Toibin
Saturday is wonderfully involving and affecting on every page. Everybody with any interest in contemporary literature will want to read it at once
Evening Standard
A brilliant novel.It is McEwan writing on absolute top form
Daily Mail
Refreshing and engrossing, dense with revelation. Superb
Independent on Sunday
Written with superb exactness, complex, suspenseful and humane, this novel.reinforces his status as the supreme novelist of his generation
Sunday Times
Author Ian McEwan
Narrator James Wilby
Duration 9 hours and 35 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781473513877
Format Audiobook
Publisher Random House
Genre Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Interior life, Narrative theme: Politics
Availability AU, GB, IE

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