Florence is bound by the social code of another era and, perhaps having been sexually abused by her father, is terrified of sexual intimacy. Edward is sexually motivated and has a taste for rash behaviour. The two are very much in love despite being from drastically different backgrounds.ĭuring the course of an evening, the couple reflect upon their upbringing and future prospects. In July 1962, Edward Mayhew, a graduate student of history, and Florence Ponting, a violinist in a string quartet, are spending their honeymoon in a small hotel on the Dorset seashore, at Chesil Beach. The Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Jonathan Yardley placed On Chesil Beach on his top ten for 2007, praising McEwan's writing and saying that 'even when he's in a minor mode, as he is here, he is nothing short of amazing'. It was selected for the 2007 Booker Prize shortlist. 'To commend an author for being reminiscent of Edith Wharton is a compliment that this reviewer reserves for a select few.On Chesil Beach is a 2007 novella by the British writer Ian McEwan. McEwan brings Florence and Edward touchingly alive for us and their seriousness, their idealism, and their desire for love draw us towards them' - Natasha Walter, Guardian It is a polished, civilised style, and very distant from the shock tactics of his early work. 'This is McEwan's mature style, one we have come to recognise from Atonement and Saturday. It is a masterpiece' - Times Literary Supplement

'Written with a fierce pursuit of the truth and an utterly modern self-awareness, what a confidant tour de force this turns out to be' - Sunday Express The protagonists have everything to lose, and their faltering journey towards a point of no return is conjured into life my McEwan with irresistible subtlety, tact and force' - Financial Times Publisher: Vintage Publishing ISBN: 9780099512790 Number of pages: 176 Weight: 145 g Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 11 mm MEDIA REVIEWS Set in the borderland of English history immediately before the liberation and licence of the swinging sixties, McEwan reveals how a life can be irrevocably altered by a moment’s twist of fate. One of Ian McEwan’s most achingly moving and expertly honed novels, On Chesil Beach is a masterpiece of miscommunication and mistaken intent. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come and, unbeknownst to them both, the events of the evening will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Now the inspiration for a major new film, adapted for the screen by Ian McEwanĪnd they had so many plans, giddy plans, heaped up before them in the misty future, as richly tangled as the summer flora of the Dorset coast, and as beautiful.Įdward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast.

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