"; if(is_file("header.php")) include "header.php"; else include "../header.php"; ?>

A study of "the powerful currents...that alter fates." In the middle of the night, Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon, awakens for no apparent reason and sees what he thinks, at first, is a meteor, but the object brightens, moves faster, and comes streaking through the skies at low altitude-a plane on fire, approaching Heathrow. In intensely realized descriptions, Henry's reacts and shares the most intimate aspects of his existence during the course of this day, drawing the reader into his life. Every action, thought, and question about life, fate, and destiny is articulated as Henry struggles to make sense of his life and see it in a philosophical context. Happily married to Rosalind, a lawyer for a newspaper, Henry has two remarkably creative children--one a blues musician and the other a poet. Through their lives, he recognizes that his own preoccupation with science and reality has left him incomplete. He has come to believe that "there [is] more to life than merely saving lives," and he yearns to find a complete, "coherent world, everything fitting at last." As the day progresses, Henry fixates on the plane accident, wonders about possible terrorism and the imminent war with Iraq, has an altercation with a thug and two accomplices after a minor traffic accident, and plays a ferocious game of squash with a friend. A massive anti-war protest ratchets up the tension by bringing traffic throughout the city to a virtual halt. Throughout these events Henry contemplates his relationships with the world at large, trying to understand his place within it. Having rejected organized religion, he finds some comfort in the conclusions of Darwin, who connects all life in a continuum in which he sees himself a part. As he muses about his genetic heritage, he thinks of his parents and of his children, the directions they are taking, and their emotional connections with him and Rosalind. For each of these connections, however, he also observes contrasts in the world around him, people whose lives are different, not because of any inherent difference but simply because of chance--"the currents that alter fate." When the Perowne home is invaded during a family gathering at the end of the day, Henry faces a decisive moment in the battle between his emotions and his intellect. The climax is loaded with menace and executed with high drama, but the events themselves are less significant than Henry's reactions to them. Intensely introspective and beautifully integrated, this is McEwan's most thoughtful novel to date, with every detail adding to the complex characterizations and themes--a wonderful meditation on individuals and culture, connection and disconnection, and the arbitrariness of fate. Mary Whipple