Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne is acontented man - a successful neurosurgeon, thedevoted husband of Rosalind, a newspaper lawyer,and proud father of two grown-up children, one apromising poet, the other a talented blues musician.Unusually, he wakes before dawn, drawn to thewindow of his bedroom and filled with a growingunease. What troubles him as he looks out at thenight sky is the state of the world - the impendingwar against Iraq, a gathering pessimism since 9/11,and a fear that his city, its openness and diversity,and his happy family life are under threat.Later, Perowne makes his way to his weekly squashgame through London streets filled with hundredsof thousands of anti-war protestors. A minor caraccident brings him into a confrontation with Baxter,a fidgety, aggressive, young man, on the edge ofviolence. To Perowne's professional eye, thereappears to be something profoundly wrong with him.Towards the end of a day rich in incident and filledwith Perowne's celebrations of life's pleasures music,food, love, the exhilarations of sport and thesatisfactions of exacting work - his family gathers fora reunion. But with the sudden appearance of Baxter,Perowne's earlier fears seem about to be realised.Ian McEwan's last novel, Atonement, was hailed asa masterpiece all over the world. Saturday sharesits confident, graceful prose and its remarkableperceptiveness, but is perhaps even more dramaticallycompelling, showing how life can change in aninstant, for better or for worse. It is the work ofa writer at the very height of his powers.
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