Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man - a successful neurosurgeon, the devoted husband of Rosalind, a newspaper lawyer, and proud father of two grown-up children, one a promising poet, the other a talented blues musician. Unusually, he wakes before dawn, drawn to the window of his bedroom and filled with a growing unease. What troubles him as he looks out at the night sky is the state of the world - the impending war against Iraq, a gathering pessimism since 9/11, and a fear that his city, its openness and diversity, and his happy family life are under threat. Later, Perowne makes his way to his weekly squash game through London streets filled with hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors. A minor car accident brings him into a confrontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive, young man, on the edge of violence. To Perowne's professional eye, there appears to be something profoundly wrong with him. Towards the end of a day rich in incident and filled with Perowne's celebrations of life's pleasures music, food, love, the exhilarations of sport and the satisfactions of exacting work - his family gathers for a reunion. But with the sudden appearance of Baxter, Perowne's earlier fears seem about to be realised. Ian McEwan's last novel, Atonement, was hailed as a masterpiece all over the world. Saturday shares its confident, graceful prose and its remarkable perceptiveness, but is perhaps even more dramatically compelling, showing how life can change in an instant, for better or for worse. It is the work of a writer at the very height of his powers. Ian McEwan has written two collections of stories, First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets, and nine novels, The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers, The Child in Time, The Innocent, Black Dogs, The Daydreamer, Enduring Love, Amsterdam, and Atonement. He won the Booker Prize for Amsterdam in 1998. www.ianmcewan.com Jonathan Cape Random House Saturday By the same author FIRST LOVE, LAST RITES IN BETWEEN THE SHEETS THE CEMENT GARDEN THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS THE CHILD IN TIME THE INNOCENT BLACK DOGS THE DAYDREAMER ENDURING LOVE AMSTERDAM ATONEMENT THE IMITATION GAME (plays for television) OR SHALL WE DIE? (Libretto for oratorio by Michael Berkeley) THE PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH (film script) SOUR SWEET (film script) Saturday Ian McEwan JONATHAN CAPE LONDON Published by Jonathan Cape 2005 2468 10 975 31 Copyright © Ian McEwan 2005 Ian McEwan has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work Grateful acknowledgement is made to Faber & Faber for permission to reprint an extract from 'Water' by Philip Larkin from The Wliitsun Wi'diHn;™ This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser First published in Great Britain in 2005 by Jonathan Cape Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SVV1V 2SA Random House Australia (Pty) Limited 20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point, Sydney, New South Wales 2061, Australia Random House New Zealand Limited 18 Poland Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand Random House South Africa (Pty) Limited Endulini, 5A Jubilee Road, Parktown 2193, South Africa The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009 www.randomhouse.co.uk A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-224-07299-4 (Cased Edition) ISBN 0-224-07675-2 (Trade Paperback) ISBN 0-224 07687-6 (Limited Edition) Random House Group are natural, recyclable "± '"" !10?I n*™" '" --"le Crests; the manufacH processes conform to the Papers used by The environmental regulations of the country of origin manufacturing prod Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Limited Polmont, Stirlingshire Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic To Will and Greg McEwan For instance? Well, for instance, what it means to be a man. In a city. In a century. In transition. In a mass. Transformed by science. Under organised power. Subject to tremendous controls. In a condition caused by mechanization. After the late failure of radical hope-,. In a society that was no community and devalued the person. Owing to the multiplied power of numbers which made ?V v.-lf nodi.dbk'. Which srenf rnllirnrv billions .i^imv.! foreign enemies but would not nay for order at home. Which permitted savagery and barbarism in its own great cities. At the same time, the pressure of human millions who have discovered what concerted efforts and thoughts can do. As megatons of water shape organisms on the ocean floor. As tides polish stones. As winds hollow cliffs. The beautiful supermachinery opening a new life for innumerable mankind. Would you deny them the right to exist? Would you ask them to labor and go hungry while you yourself enjoyed old-fashioned Values? You - you yourself are a child of this mass and a brother to all the rest. Or else an ingrate, dilettante, idiot. There, Herzog, thought Herzog, since you ask for the instance, is the way it runs. Saul Bellow, Herzog, 1964 One