78. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

Set during the early 1960s in England, this brief novel explores the relationship between Edward Mayhew and Florence Ponting. Florence is the daughter of a businessman and a professor, and belongs to a string quartet. Hoping to be a musician, she is extremely shy and unsure of herself, and dreads her wedding night when she will have to have sex for the first time. Edward was raised primarily by his headmaster father, after his mother received brain damage from an accident when he was a child. He is also a virgin, but is hoping that their honeymoon on the Dorset Coast will bring them closer together. Set during one evening, their honeymoon evening, this quiet story explores what happens to the couple during their first, disastrous sexual encounter.

In his thirteenth novel, Ian McEwan shows what happens when a young couple is full of fear, doubt, and suffers from the inability to communicate their needs to each other. Background information about the two newlyweds is given throughout so readers can understand their anxieties and misunderstandings. Although not much happens in it, it is extremely powerful and realistic. I was lucky enough to get a signed first edition folio of this novel during a spring trip to the UK, something I cherish since McEwan is one of my favorite authors.