August Book, Saturday

It is Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man, a successful neurosurgeon, a devoted husband and the father of two successful adult children. One dawn, as he looks out of his bedroom window, he is filled with a growing unease fed by the impending war in Iraq and the wake of 9/11.

As Perowne makes his way through a typical day, a minor car accident brings him into a confrontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive young man on the edge of violence.

Towards the end of the day, a Saturday, filled with incidents and thoughts of war, morality and love, Baxter reappears, this time at the Perowne home during a family reunion. The consequences are extraordianry.

In Saturday, Ian McEwan shows how life can change in an instant, for better or for worse.