Title: Amsterdam
Author: Ian McEwan
Original language: English
Translation(s): 39 languages
Context: Amsterdam (1998) is a translated novel by Ian McEwan. The novel is disguised very intelligently as a comic novel. It is a sharp story about contemporary morality and a book anyone will thoroughly enjoy.
Synopsis: The story is about two old friends Vernon Halliday and Clive Linley who meet on a chilly day in February in the throng outside a crematorium in London. They visit the crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both the friends had been lovers of Molly Lane in the days before they reached at their present notability and reputation. While Vernon Halliday has become the editor of the newspaper, The Judge, Clive has attained success in becoming a modern composer.
Molly was a gutsy and beautiful looking woman who had other lovers as well, especially the Foreign Secretary, Mr.Julian Garmony the notorious right-winger tipped to become the next Prime Minister. Both Vernon and Clive are together to make a pact during the days after the funeral of Molly. The pact was to have such a impact that neither Clive nor Vernon would have foreseen. The moral decision taken by each would be a disastrous one with their friendship being tested to the limits. Julian Garmony would end up fighting for a life in politics.
Other works by the Author:
Novels
1978 – The Cement Garden
1981 – The Comfort of Strangers
1987 – The Child in Time
1990 – The Innocent
1992 – Black Dogs
1997 – Enduring Love
2001 – Atonement
2005 – Saturday
2007 – On Chesil Beach
2010 – Solar
2012 – Sweet Tooth
2014 – The Children Act
2016 – Nutshell
2019 – Machines Like Me
Short stories
1975 – First Love, Last Rites (Collection of short stories)
1978 – In Between the Sheets (Collection of short stories)
1995 – The Short Stories (Collection of short stories)
2016 – My Purple Scented Novel
2019 – The Cockroach (Novella)
Children’s fiction
1985 – Rose Blanche
1994 – The Daydreamer
Plays
1976 – Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration
1980 – The Imitation Game
Screenplays
1983 – The Ploughman’s Lunch
1988 – Soursweet
1993 – The Good Son
2017 – On Chesil Beach
2017 – The Children Act
Oratorio
1983 – Or Shall We Die?
Libretto
2008 – For You
Film adaptations
1984 – Last Day of Summer
1993 – The Cement Garden
1990 – The Comfort of Strangers
1993 – The Innocent
1997 – First Love, Last Rites
2002 – Solid Geometry
2004 – Enduring Love
2007 – Atonement
2017 – On Chesil Beach
2017 – The Children Act
2017 – The Child in Time
Sweet Tooth (In development)