Saturday by Ian McEwan

'For the past two hours he's been in a dream of absorption that had dissolved all sense of time, and all awareness of the other parts of his life. Even his awareness of his own existence has vanished. He's been delivered into a pure present, free of the weight of the past or any anxieties about the future.'

For most people, Saturday is a time to sit back and relax after a strenuous week at work but for neurosurgeon Henry Perowne he is constantly amid post 19/11 and terrorist attacks his mind can’t help to go astray.

With the anticipation of his daughter returning from Paris after having just one a major Poetry Prize, Henry prepares for the family reunion. Fish stew is in the making, love has been made to his strong- willed wife, and despite losing another squash match against the anesthetist who works alongside him, he even manages to visit his elderly mother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. If this wasn’t enough too deal with, Henry also plays a vital role in the global story. Having witnessed a potential terrorist attack by plane crash, Henry is then stalked throughout the book by aggressive driver, Baxter.

This book offers an extraordinary account into the mind of a neurosurgeon who lives his life studying and working with the brains of others. Ian McEwan offers readers a fascinating glimpse into what it may be like on the other side of the operating table by following the thoughts of the neurosurgeon from the moment he wakes up to the small hours of the following morning where he goes to bed again.

Gripping thought provoking and heart wrenching, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has wondered what it is like to see the world through another’s eyes.

About the Author

Ian McEwan was born on 21 June in 1948 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. He spent much of his childhood in the Far East, Germany and North Africa where his father, an officer in the army, was posted.

He returned to England and read English at Sussex University. After graduating, he became the first student on the MA Creative Writing course established at the University of East Anglia by Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, in 1999. He was awarded a CBE in 2000.

Ian has won numerous prizes for his literature, including the 2006 James Tait Black Memorial prize for fiction for his book 'Saturday'.

He is also well known as a screenwriter. Some of his plays include 'The Ploughman's Lunch' and 'The Children Act'. As well as being on stage, some of his books have also been adapted for the screen such as 'Atonement and Enduring Love'.

For more information on Ian McEwan you can visit his website, http://www.ianmcewan.com/.