3 replies to this topic

[glidrose]

Author's website.

Serena Frome, the beautiful daughter of an Anglican bishop, has a brief affair with an older man during her final year at Cambridge, and finds herself being groomed for the intelligence service. The year is 1972. Britain, confronting economic disaster, is being torn apart by industrial unrest and terrorism and faces its fifth state of emergency. The Cold War has entered a moribund phase, but the fight goes on, especially in the cultural sphere. Serena, a compulsive reader of novels, is sent on a secret mission codenamed Sweet Tooth, which brings her into the literary world of Tom Healey, a promising young writer. First she loves his stories, then she begins to love the man. Can she maintain the fiction of her undercover life? And who is inventing whom? To answer these questions, Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage - trust no one.

Sweet Tooth will be published by Jonathan Cape at the end of August and by Doubleday in November. It will first be available in Brazil in July by Companhia das letras.

This is McEwan's second spy novel. His first, THE INNOCENT, was published in 1990 by traditional Bond publisher Jonathan Cape.

Daniel Craig starred in the film version of McEwan's novel ENDURING LOVE.

[Dustin]

Thanks for pointing to this, much appreciated!

I remember liking THE INNOCENT at the time but felt no need to reread it since 1990. I'll pick this one up for sure but overall I didn't think McEwan would come back to this.

[MkB]

Thanks for the news! I will certainly give "Sweet Tooth" a try. I'm still relatively new to Ian McEwan, but from what I've read (The Innocent, Amsterdam and Atonement) he's a terrific writer. He gives life to awkwardness and pettiness of sentiments like no one else, and it's just perfect in a spy novel.

[glidrose]

An excerpt (8000 words).

Looks good I must say.

...and here's an interview.

Want to be a spy? Here's your chance. Who knew you could join MI5 online?