From the pen of a master--the #1 bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of "Atonement"--comes a "cerebral novel about an ominous day seen through the eyes of Henry Perowne, a reflective neurosurgeon whose comfortable life is shaken following a run-in with a street thug" ("...

From the pen of a master--the #1 bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of "Atonement"--comes a "cerebral novel about an ominous day seen through the eyes of Henry Perowne, a reflective neurosurgeon whose comfortable life is shaken following a run-in with a street thug" ("Publishers Weekly").

In his triumphant new novel, Ian McEwan, the bestselling author of * Atonement,* follows an ordinary man through a Saturday whose high promise gradually turns nightmarish. Henry Perowne-a neurosurgeon, urbane, privileged, deeply in love with his wife and grown-up children-plans to play a game of squash, visit his elderly mother, and cook dinner for his family. But after a minor traffic accident leads to an unsettling confrontation, Perowne must set aside his plans and summon a strength greater than he knew he had in order to preserve the life that is dear to him.