Nutshell
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A “suspenseful, dazzlingly clever and gravely profound” (The Washington Post) novel that brilliantly recasts Shakespeare and lends new weight to the age-old question of Hamlet's hesitation, from the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement.
Trudy has been unfaithful to her husband, John. What’s more, she has kicked him out of their marital home, a valuable old London town house, and in his place is his own brother, the profoundly banal Claude. The illicit couple have hatched a scheme to rid themselves of her inconvenient husband forever. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy’s womb.
As Trudy’s unborn son listens, bound within her body, to his mother and his uncle’s murderous plans, he gives us a truly new perspective on our world, seen from the confines of his.
Trudy has been unfaithful to her husband, John. What’s more, she has kicked him out of their marital home, a valuable old London town house, and in his place is his own brother, the profoundly banal Claude. The illicit couple have hatched a scheme to rid themselves of her inconvenient husband forever. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy’s womb.
As Trudy’s unborn son listens, bound within her body, to his mother and his uncle’s murderous plans, he gives us a truly new perspective on our world, seen from the confines of his.
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Community Reviews
A fetus narrates this book, and even knowing that, I kept picturing him as a mildly disapproving professor with tenure, as if he’d just stepped away from annotating Paradise Lost and found the modern world a bit underqualified. His sentences arrive fully formed, polished, landing with the calm authority of someone used to being agreed with. He has the palate of someone who eats meals cooked by Michelin-star chefs. I can practically see him swirling, pausing, and murmuring about oak and gooseberries before sipping his wine. A fetus with the snobbery of a Lord with generational wealth, art, and “good breeding,” sitting in a leather chair. Through this fetus, we get meditations on the state of the world, threaded through a modern-day Hamlet retelling that is clever in theory, and I have to grudgingly admit, sharp in execution.
The good stuff, the central idea of a fetus narrating from the womb, is novel, clever, and intriguing, and it’s written with control and bite. There are flashes of that dry, scathing English humor that really land. But the jokes often feel like they’re punching down at the modern world, and after a point, it gets tiring.
All that said, I’d prefer that any fetus I may have to deal with not be a pompous, sanctimonious, preachy, self-indulgent, privileged, straight, old man.
This was a delightfully witty story of murder, told from the perspective of an unborn child. The narrator is, unborn, yet far surpasses the intelligence and wisdom of those he witnesses through sound. Although a bit macabre in topic, this was charming to read.
Even though the premise is somewhat silly in its device, this dark and humorous tale captivated me completely. I loved McEwan’s literary magic. In general, I try to avoid horror or even horror-tinged books, but this was grabbed me in slow increments and at the end I was so invested in the character of the baby that I wanted to know how the rest of his life went. Time to reread Hamlet.
Wow, that was an unexpected journey. The general story of the novel is not a new one. The wife is unfaithful with her brother-in-law and they commit murder to gain money. What makes this a very unique novel is the perspective from which it is written: the unborn child. Trudy is well into her pregnancy when she and her lover decide to murder her husband, sell his house, and run away with millions. All the while there is a silent witness, her baby, listening in on her horrendous plans, powerless against the adults' actions.
The baby's thoughts are uncommon for a child his age. He is a sponge absorbing everything around him. He is greatly in tune with his mother's routines and disturbingly present in many adult unpleasantries. When you think the murderous duo can get away with their seeming perfect crime, the child's actions stop their hasty escape.
I would recommend this book to those who enjoy shorter novels with quick and exciting conclusions.
The baby's thoughts are uncommon for a child his age. He is a sponge absorbing everything around him. He is greatly in tune with his mother's routines and disturbingly present in many adult unpleasantries. When you think the murderous duo can get away with their seeming perfect crime, the child's actions stop their hasty escape.
I would recommend this book to those who enjoy shorter novels with quick and exciting conclusions.
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