Thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend who, like Cecilia, has come down from Cambridge. By the end of that day, the lives of all three will have been changed for ever.

In a hotel overlooking Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, who got married that morning, are sitting down to dinner in their room. Neither is entirely able to suppress their anxieties about the wedding night to come. This book presents the story that tells how the course of life can be changed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.

Charles Frieth, pre-eminent composer and conductor, is preparing for a performance of one of his works, Demonic Aubade. Obstinate and myopic, he is oblivious to the growing turmoil around him. As the performance draws near, the maestro is awoken to the chaos, and as Charles struggles to regain control of his life, a tragedy begins to unfold.

Ranging from the Arctic Circle to the deserts of New Mexico, 'Solar' is a serious and darkly satirical novel, showing human frailty struggling with the most pressing and complex problem of our time. It is a story of one man's greed and self-deception.

Serena Frome, in her final year at Cambridge, is being groomed for MI5. Serena is sent on a secret mission - Operation Sweet Tooth - which brings her into the world of Tom Haley, a promising young writer. First she loves his stories, then she begins to love the man. Can she maintain the fiction of her undercover life? And who is inventing whom?

In these seven interlinked stories the grown-up Peter reveals the secret journeys, metamorphoses and adventures of his childhood. Taking childhood as his subject matter, this is McEwan's first work of fiction which appeals to children as well as adults.

"His stories are so resonant and frightening because they are totally original. They are about the recognisable world of private fantasy and nightmare -- a world, despite our protestations to the contrary, we are all involved in." --Observer
Call them transcripts of dreams or deadly accurate maps of the tremor zones of the psyche, the seven stories in this collection engage and implicate us in the most fearful ways imaginable. A two-timing pornographer becomes an unwilling object in the fantasies of one of his victims. A jaded millionaire buys himself the perfect mistress...

"Haunting and compelling." --The Times

As their holiday unfolds, Colin and Maria are locked into their own intimacy. They groom themselves meticulously, as though there waits someone who cares deeply about how they appear. Then they meet a man with a disturbing story to tell and become drawn into a fantasy of violence and obsession.

Stephen Lewis, a successful author of children's books, takes his three-year-old daughter on a routine Saturday morning trip to the supermarket. While waiting in line, his attention is distracted and his daughter is kidnapped. From there, Lewis spirals into bereavement that has effects on his relationship with his wife, his psyche and time itself.

In the relentless summer heat, four abruptly orphaned children retreat into a shadowy, isolated world, and find their own strange and unsettling ways of fending for themselves.