On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

The year is 1962, and a young couple at the very start of their honeymoon find themselves unravelling as each carries insecurities and hesitations that threaten to transform their lives forever. A deeply poignant yet brief novel, McEwan’s On Chesil Beach broaches topics of physical intimacy, expectations, and failures of communication. Prepare to be swept away to the seaside and into the lives of these two people who were destined to fall together, as they attempt to surmise if they were also destined to fall apart.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonementbrilliantly illuminates the collision of sexual longing, deep-seated fears, and romantic fantasy on a young couple’s wedding night.

“No one now writing in English surpasses or even matches McEwan's accomplishment." —The Washington Post Book World

It is 1962, and Florence and Edward are celebrating their wedding in a hotel on the Dorset coast. Yet as they dine, the expectation of their marital duties become overwhelming. Unbeknownst to them both, the decisions they make this night will resonate throughout their lives. With exquisite prose, Ian McEwan creates in On Chesil Beach a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.

Don’t miss Ian McEwan’s new novel, Lessons.