In the relentless summer heat, four abruptly orphaned children retreat into a shadowy, isolated world, and find their own strange and unsettling ways of fending for themselves. . THE CEMENT GARDEN, Ian McEwan's first novel, more than confirmed the talent for macabre invention and psychological power shown in his short story collections, FIRST LOVE, LAST RITES and IN BETWEEN THE SHEETS. It was praised by John Fowles as 'further proof of his remarkable powers'.
