The Child In Time By Ian McEwan

Stephen Lewis writes books for children. He is married to Julie and they have a three year old daughter named Kate.

Stephen takes Kate with him when he goes to a local supermarket one Saturday, but he is momentarily distracted whilst shopping and Kate disappears. No trace of Kate is found and no ransom note is ever received. Stephen and Julie are left in limbo, not knowing what has become of their young daughter.

Following Kate's loss, Stephen and Julie split up. Julie moves out into a cottage in the countryside where she becomes a recluse and, tortured by guilt, Stephen starts drinking. He has little aim to his life apart from being a member of the Government's Commission on Childcare. His best friend Charles is a politician and despite being the Prime Minister's favourite, his personal life is unraveling and he heads ever closer to a nervous breakdown.

Stephen's entire existence focuses on Kate and increasingly "real" memories of his own childhood. Charles eventually breaks down completely and retires from political life. His mental state is fragile and he rejects his own adult state, moving to the countryside and regressing back to a fantasy childhood in order to experience what he thinks will be an idyllic existence.

The novel is set in a "dystopian near future" based on Britain in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and McEwan portrays Stephen as an observer stuck in a state of unreality who feels perpetually "outside" of time as if it had stopped at the moment of Kate's disappearance.

Childhood and it's idealisation is a major theme. Kate is frozen in time - she is always the perfect three year old in Stephen's mind. Stephen is a children's author and writes about idyllic situations. He is also part of a Government committee aiming to produce a guide to bringing up children in a way that will make society better. His guilt and loss leads him to experience a form of "mental time travel" into memories of his own childhood. Charles rejects the demands of adulthood in favour of a fantasy. In the end although there is never a resolution to Kate's disappearance, it is another child that helps Stephen to accept his loss and move on...

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