Nutshell by Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan is one of my favourite authors of adult fiction. His last, The Children Act, was just brilliant. Needless to say, when I heard he had another book out, I was rushing to NetGalley to request it. His diversity of subject matter and characters is just incredible. In this book, the narrator is an unborn baby. Very original.

Trudy and John Cairncross are separated. Trudy is living in a large old house left to John by his grandparents. It's in dire need of refurbishment - it is squalid, rotting, dilapidated and full of decay. Much like Trudy and John's marriage. Trudy is having an affair with John's brother, Claude, who lives in the house with her. She is 9 months pregnant with John's baby, the aforementioned narrator of the story. We learn nothing of baby from any conversation between the adults of the story, they do not mention him at all. None of them appear to want him to exist. The only way we know baby is a boy is because he finds it out for himself in the womb.

Through baby's running commentary, we find out much about Trudy, Claude and John, the most important fact being that the large house is worth 6 million pounds, and the only way Trudy and Claude can get their greedy hands on that money, is by getting rid of John. A plan is hatched and we follow baby's emotional journey while he is torn between love and hate for his mother, hatred and admiration for his uncle Claude, and love and pity for his father the poet John.

Do not assume that baby speaks only in baby talk. He is a highly intellectual being - he knows all the news and politics of the day by listening to all the radio channels and factual programmes that his mother listens to. He is also a connoisseur of wine - he becomes drunk with Trudy and suffers hangovers too. He is not yet born but he has the same worries as an adult in modern day - "In my confinement, I had other concerns: my drink problem, family worries, an uncertain future....."

Ian McEwan, while delivering an excellent essay on modern day life, is a great thriller writer. I was hooked throughout, staying up till the small hours to find out what would happen next.