Nutshell

LoveReading Says

Possibly the most unusual crime book of the year insofar as it follows the story of a crime from the point of view of an unborn child, isolated inside his mother's womb but listening to all manifestations of the world outside through radio, voices, music and other stimuli. A daring conceit, which literary author McEwan just pulls off, despite a tendency to fall in love with his own words, but then wouldn't a foetus bombarded with the same information also end being so prolix and mimicking what he perceives?

His mother is having an affair with his father's brother and they plot to eliminate the extraneous party. Can the foetus prevent the murder, will he side with either his mother or his father? Once you accept the far-fetched premise, the tale is both witty (never has a foetus enjoyed and described the wine his mother is drinking with such relish...) and actually quite suspenseful.

In a year when two crime books have made the Booker Prize shortlist, it's a surprise that an obvious candidate like McEwan didn't, maybe because he borrowed a criminal plot! The tale's central character would have enjoyed this irony. ~ Maxim Jakubowski

Reviewed by Maxim Jakubowski
Maxim Jakubowski is a London-based novelist and editor.
More reviews by Maxim Jakubowski

About Nutshell

Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home - a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse - but not with John. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan.

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