The Cement Garden

For readers into black comedy and coming of age novels, The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan could probably satisfy your tastebuds. Published in 1978 by award winning writer of books such as Amsterdam, which won the Booker Prize in 1998, The Comfort of Strangers, The Daydreamer, Saturday, amongst the many. The Cement Garden was also made into a movie, which premiered in 1993 directed by Andrew Birkin. Revolving around the events of four children whose parents died unexpectedly one summer, they were thrown into a world of isolation and darkness to fend for themselves. The decision to keep mum about their mother's death from the outside world so as to keep the family together leads to a chain of events, narrated through the thoughts of Jack, second of four children. It depicts the yearn for adulthood which they now finally have as well as the bittersweet longing for what they can't have. It's easy to finish the book in a single sitting, leaving you with a longing for more.