The Cement Garden
Ian McEwan · 1978 CE · Novel · English · Contemporary
In a half-demolished street with no neighbours left, four children lose their father to a heart attack over a bag of cement and then their mother to a long illness upstairs. Rather than be separated into care they keep the death to themselves, set the house running on their own terms, and put what remains of her in a trunk in the cellar. The claustrophobia and the flat adolescent voice made it the defining book of McEwan's early notoriety.
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Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Closest analogues
PsychologicalGothicComing of AgeLoss of InnocenceIsolation & AlienationForbidden LoveContemporaryEverymanConfessionThe Housevs Selfvs SocietyGothicRealistIronicEnglish
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NovelGothicComing-of-AgeComing of AgeLoss of InnocenceForbidden LoveContemporaryInnocentBildungsromanThe Housevs Selfvs SocietyGothicEnglish
NovelPsychologicalComing-of-AgeComing of AgeIsolation & AlienationContemporaryEverymanBildungsromanConfessionThe Housevs Selfvs SocietyRealistIronic