The Children Act

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Ian McEwan

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, a division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House company.

www.nanatalese.com

Originally published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape, an imprint of the Random House Group Ltd., London

DOUBLEDAY is a registered trademark of Random House LLC. Nan A. Talese and the colophon are trademarks of Random House LLC.

Ian McEwan is an unlimited company no. 7473219 registered in England and Wales.

Jacket design by Michael J. Windsor

Jacket illustrations: blood © rangizzz/Shutterstock; texture © Flas100/Shutterstock

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McEwan, Ian, author.

The children act : a novel / Ian McEwan. — First American edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-385-53970-8 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-0-385-53971-5 (eBook)

1. Women judges—Fiction. 2. Self-actualization (Psychology) in women—Fiction. 3. Religion and law—England—Fiction. 4. Legal stories. I. Title.

PR6063.C4C48 2014

823′.914—dc23 2014018448

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