"On Chesil Beach", by Ian McEwan? This might be a bit obscure, outside the UK. I am a huge Ian McEwan fan, partly because he writes about the area of the UK I come from.
Here's part of the Amazon review for Chesil Beach.
It's a simple premise, a couple on their honeymoon at the beginning of the 1960s. Because of the time it is set, they have yet to see the true spirit of that decade; freelove, womens lib etc. McEwan tells us a sad and poignant love story:
McEwan is the master of the defining moment, that place and time when, once it has taken place, nothing will ever be the same after it. It does not go well and Florence flees the room. "As she understood it, there were no words to name what had happened, there existed no shared language in which two sane adults could describe such events to each other." Edward eventually follows her and they have a poignant and painful conversation where accusations are made, ugly things are said and roads are taken from which, in the case of these two, the way back cannot be found. Late in Edward's life he realizes: "Love and patience--if only he had them both at once--would surely have seen them both through." This beautifully told sad story could have been conceived and written only by Ian McEwan. --Valerie Ryan
Just wanted to recommend this author, and wondered if anyone else had read anything by him.
I'll be sure to keep Ian McEwan in mind dg...I'm not much for "real life" kind of stuff in my fiction, except maybe some mysteries. Often, however, I feel like something different
I finished it yesterday, Giz. Rarely has book had such an effect on me. I found myself weeping as I finished it. McEwan has the uncanny ability to put our deepest emotions into words.
It's just a small book, maybe 200 pages or so, but in my opinion, one of his best.
