Children

Children, winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize, is a poignant meditation on loss and the healing power of memory.

After his wife's death, art historian Max Morden retreats to write in the seaside village where, as a child, he spent summers with his parents. The past becomes Max's refuge and only consolation, as he recalls the summer he first met the Grace family.

The painful present leads Max to seek refuge in the memory of a very specific moment of childhood: the summer of his initiation into life and its dreams, of discovering friendship and love, but also, ultimately, pain and death.

As the memories unfold, the tragic event of that summer, "the day of the strange tide", gradually comes to light.