The innocent, or special relationship: Ian McEwan

The Innocent is a startlingly prescient novel from Booker prize-winning Sunday Times bestselling author Ian McEwan.Into a Berlin wrenched between East and West, comes twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham, assigned to a British-American surveillance team. Into a Berlin wrenched between East and West, comes twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham, assigned to a British-American surveillance team.Though only a pawn in an international plot, Leonard uses his secret work to escape the bonds of his ordinary life.The promise of his new life begins to be fulfilled as Leonard becomes a crucial part of the surveillance team, while simultaneously being initiated into a new world of love and sex by Maria, a beautiful young German woman.It is a promise that turns to horror in the course of one terrible evening; a night when Leonard Marnham learns just how much of his innocence he's willing to shed.'The plot crackles like thin ice with dread and suspense' Sunday Times