First Father died, then Mother. Now the four children are left alone in a house that looks like a castle stranded among grim high-rises. Free of supervision, free of restraint, they can do anything. Be anything. As long as they keep the house's secret.
In this tour de force of psychological mease, Ian McEwan excavates the ruins of childhood and uncovers things that most adults have spent a lifetime forgetting - or denying. Out of blasphemous wishes and hair-raising games, he constructs a novel that is all the more chilling for its offhand approach to the unspeakable.