Summer tales for the soul

[Photo provided to China Daily]

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

British author Ian McEwan's novel was published in 2014 and has recently been translated into Chinese. The Children Act, touted as his best novel since On Chesil Beach, poses difficult questions regarding the law, religion, ethics, marriage and love.

At the start of the novel, 59-year-old Fiona Maye, a respected high court judge specializing in family law, is reviewing a case at home when she is asked by her husband for "permission" to have an affair with a 28-year-old statistician because their marriage is not physically intimate.

The shocked judge refuses her husband's terms. Amid the ensuing argument, she receives a phone call about an emergency case: A 17-year-old leukemia patient did not receive blood transfusion because he is a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious group, whose believers do not accept such medical treatment.

The teenager, Adam, is three months from his 18th birthday and is still under the Children Act which protects the young. After visiting Adam and finding him intelligent and kind, Fiona decides to force blood transfusion on him. Adam is saved and somehow develops special feelings toward Fiona.

Fiona later rejects Adam's request to live with her when he traces her during one of her work trips, but she ends up kissing him.

The novel ends with a sudden twist when Adam's leukemia returns. But he is now 18 and has the right to decide whether he wants to be saved.