The Children Act by Ian McEwan

This exceptionally elegant novel has a deep humanity threaded throughout, all the while exploring the perennially thorny problem of how to balance the primitive human urges of passion, impulse, and procreation with a complex society that urges order, restraint and the pursuit of the material.

Fiona Maye is a successful and well respected High Court judge who is renowned for applying the law with intelligence, exactitude and sensitivity. She presides over cases in the Family Division with a calm and ordered mind, unflappable in the face of acrimonious and warring parties, knotty ethical issues, and the stream of dysfunctional families.

But at home, her calm has been ruffled and her marriage of thirty years is in danger. With the steady and familiar rhythms of her life in flux, Fiona is plagued by a sense of unease. There are consequences of past decisions not fully resolved and current courses of action to be anticipated and thought through.

It is in this unusual state of unrest that the case of a 17 year old Jehovah Witness, who is refusing blood transfusion, breaks through her carefully constructed professional and personal boundaries. While the courtroom provides an orderly pace and structure within which life’s messy problems can be considered and deliberated on, Fiona finds herself on unfamiliar ground when her everyday world becomes more impulsive and unpredictable.  She must struggle to remain in control - if that is really what she wants.

It is easy to see why McEwan's latest offering has received high praise from critics. The graceful simplicity of the prose weaves your consciousness seamlessly into Fiona’s and, for the short duration of the novel, you find yourself almost wearing her courtly robe and her cultured and measured life. The effect is enchanting.

Reviewed by Spot

Catalogue Link:  The Children Act