Book review: The Children Act by Ian McEwan

Jonathan Cape, £16.99

Ian McEwan’s early works—The Comfort of Strangers, The Cement Garden, First Love, Last Rites—were macabre and elusive. Characters meandered through uncertain streets, and death came casually, as if nothing really mattered. These days, McEwan’s novels revolve around bold central themes. With Saturday, it was neuroscience; with Solar, it was global warming; and with McEwan’s latest, The Children Act, it is religion. A High Court judge, Fiona Maye, 59, is discovered “at home on Sunday evening, supine on a chaise longue, staring… towards a…