Every Ian McEwan novel has a large number of fans, and each one is somebody's favourite of his books. However, in recent years two books that contend for the title of his masterpiece are Atonement and Saturday.
Atonement is one of the most famous of all McEwan's works. It is the story of a young girl's act of betrayal and the way she spends the rest of her life trying to make up for it, hence the title. The period setting is brilliantly evoked (the novel starts before World War Two) and the themes of struggle and redemption have struck a chord with readers around the world. It has been made into a top ranking film starring Keira Knightley.
The more recent Saturday was published in 2007 and won the James Tait Black memorial prize. It is set in the year of the Iraq war and relates one man's private struggles to world social and political events.