Joe Rose is picnicking in the Chiltern Hills with his girlfriend when they see a hot-air balloon drifting across a nearby field with a small boy inside and a red-faced man trying desperately to keep the basket from rising into the air. Joe races off in pursuit and is joined by four other men, all of whom grab the trailing rope, and have just about managed to get the situation under control when a strong gust of wind snatches the balloon and drags it upwards; one by one the rescuers are forced to let go. Except for one man who, to everyone's horror, holds on until he has been lifted some three hundred feet off the ground. And then he lets go. McEwan, as the opening chapter of this novel demonstrates, has perfected the art of stomach-churning dread, and as the story progresses and Rose is haunted, not just by the tragedy and by his dissatisfaction with his job as a writer of popular science books, but by a religious maniac who claims to be in love with him, he tightens the screws until the narrative takes on the character of a silent scream.
Arminta Wallace