Die Geschichte handelt von einem Waisen, der bereits in der Jugend die Eltern seiner stark pubertierenden Freunde "übernimmt" und sich von diesen als neues Objekt der Fürsorge ordentlich bemuttern läßt. For Jeremy, it is a matter of refracting certain experiences in his life through June's prism, examining them with Bernard's more scientific lens, and comparing the two.

He describes going with Bernard to Berlin as the Wall was coming down, a moment when celebration erupts into sudden violence. However, they are never as close as they were before their honeymoon, and June soon takes the three children and leaves Bernard to move to France. It is richly packed with ideas and character into what is almost only a novella in length, and I found the ending to be particularly strong and well prepared by what had gone before. His other award-winning novels are The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, and Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize. Placing the exploration of his in-laws' complicated relationship over five decades at the story's core around which the philosophical, spiritual and moral themes are continually gyrating, McEwan masterfully dissects the private sphere within and against the context of political developments in post-war Europe.The book is not flawless, there are technical weaknesses early on -- that is, the craftsmanship sometimes shows -- and there are passages where the 'debate' becomes a bit ham-handed.

June's encounter with two black dogs in a rocky gorge is mentioned throughout the book, but it is only fully explained at the end.The novel has themes of love, faith, and political ideology, as viewed through the eyes of a married couple as they travel through the cities of Europe. There are characters with interesting traits, and plots that usually have an abrupt twist in the end. Within the selection of these expansive semi-autonomous sub-stories we find some less than probable and/or extreme circumstances that are in danger of reducing the authenticity of other aspects of the novel and, for this reader, affect the overall enjoyment of the book. Depression is never really addressed, which is odd, given the title: the book even mentions that "the black dog" was how Churchill personified his depressive episodes.

To understand why they are so important to Jeremy, you need to read the introduction which is actually part of the novella itself and not, as I first thought, an autobiographical note on the real author’s life. Now time, afternoon time, which in the Midi is as elemental as air and light, expanded and rolled billowingly outwards across the rest of the day, and upwards to the vaults of the cobalt sky, freeing everyone in its delicious sprawl from their obligations. Seeking to comprehend how their deep love could be defeated by ideological differences Bernard and June cannot reconcile, Jeremy undertakes writing June's memoirs, only to be led back again and again to one terrifying encounter forty years earlier - a moment that, for June, was as devastating and irreversible in its consequences as the changes sweeping Europe in Jeremy's own time.The Child in Time bagged a wonderful 5 - which I'll link here because it's a nice positive review: This is me being nice to McEwan. While these on the one hand allowing for a deeper exploration of specific time periods and political events, for example, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, they seem, on the other, to skew the balance of importance that these events might have for the essence of the novel. Entiendo que este libro es una invitación a reflexionar sobre las ideologías y creencias humanas, los motivos por los cuales nos aferramos a ellas y las defendemos, cómo nos transforman y definen.