{"product_id":"2026600000558-secondhand-the-child-in-time","title":"The Child In Time","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: 1st us ed., 1st pr.,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Very good                          \u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good                  \u003cbr\u003eMarkings: No markings\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA haunting and deeply psychological literary novel, The Child in Time chronicles the devastating aftermath of a young father's unimaginable loss — the disappearance of his three-year-old daughter from a supermarket — and the slow, painful unraveling of his marriage, identity, and grip on reality that follows. Ian McEwan constructs a narrative that moves between intimate personal grief and broader social commentary, weaving in a government committee on childcare and a meditation on the nature of time itself, including moments where the boundaries between past, present, and future seem to dissolve entirely. The tone is elegiac and precise, marked by McEwan's characteristically cool, luminous prose that transforms raw emotional devastation into something philosophically profound. Widely regarded as one of McEwan's finest achievements, the novel argues that grief is not merely an emotional state but a fundamental disruption of one's relationship with time, memory, and selfhood. The Child in Time stands as a masterwork of contemporary British fiction, earning the Whitbread Novel Award upon its publication in 1987.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48792283676891,"sku":"2026600000558-SECONDHAND","price":40.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/5064e35c-83d9-40c6-92bb-83aa5c9aff41.png?v=1779274620","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026600000558-secondhand-the-child-in-time","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}