Nutshell: A Novel [Paperback]

ANew York TimesandWashington PostNotable Book
One of the Best Books of the Year:San Francisco Chronicle, NPR,Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oprah.com

Trudy has been unfaithful to her husband, John. What’s more, she has kicked him out of their marital home, a valuable old London town house, and in his place is his own brother, the profoundly banal Claude. The illicit couple have hatched a scheme to rid themselves of her inconvenient husband forever. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy’s womb.
 
As Trudy’s unborn son listens, bound within her body, to his mother and his uncle’s murderous plans, he gives us a truly new perspective on our world, seen from the confines of his. McEwan’s brilliant recasting of Shakespeare lends new weight to the age-old question of Hamlet's hesitation, and is a tour de force of storytelling.“Smart, funny and utterly captivating.” —The New York Times

“More brilliant than it has any right to be. . . . Suspenseful, dazzlingly clever and gravely profound.” —The Washington Post

“Fantastically entertaining and frequently hilarious.” —San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Nutshell is a joy: unexpected, self-aware, and pleasantly dense with plays on Shakespeare.” —NPR

“Compact, captivating . . . The writing is lean and muscular, often relentlessly gorgeous.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Gorgeous. . . . Offer[s] the reader a voice both distinctive and engaging. . . . Rife with wordplay, social commentary, hilarity, and suspense. . . . Hats off to Ian McEwan.” —The Boston Globe

“A comic tale. . . . It is a masterpiece.” —The Times(London)

“McEwan is a literary pointl“n