The Children Act

By Ian McEwan,

Book cover of The Children Act

Book description

Fiona Maye, a leading High Court judge, renowned for her fierce intelligence and sensitivity is called on to try an urgent case. For religious reasons, a seventeen-year-old boy is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life. Time is running out.

She visits the boy in hospital - an…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Children Act as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I’ve long been a huge fan of McEwan, whose many works often revolve around a central question with no easy answer, and The Children Act is a brilliant example. A high court judge must decide whether to enforce medical treatment for a teenage boy which will save his life, but that he is refusing on religious grounds. The decision she makes, all the while grappling with past judgments and her current marriage issues, does not put an end to the matter, and McEwan takes the reader on many unforeseen twists and turns.

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