Review: Nutshell

Let us imagine for a moment that Ian McEwan is not Ian McEwan, and that Nutshell is not the latest book by one of England’s most critically acclaimed, Booker-winning writers, and that the popular film Atonement starring Keira Knightley had never been made. Let us imagine instead that McEwan is an unknown writer pitching the concept of his book to a publisher. The conversation, I imagine, might go something like this.

“So tell me your idea for this book, Ian. Who is it about? What does it have to say?”