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|title=Sweet Tooth

|author=Ian McEwan

|publisher=Jonathan Cape

|date=August 2012

|website=http://www.ianmcewan.com/

|summary=1970s set love story where no one can be trusted to tell the truth. Starts off slowly for a McEwan novel but don't judge this until you read the final brilliant chapter.

}}

Ian McEwan's ''Sweet Tooth'' is part spy novel but more a love story and a tale of deception and half truths. It's also, more subtly, a book about the power, role and importance of fiction. Set in the 1970s, with frequent musical and political references to the UK at that time, Serena Frome is a beautiful, Cambridge-educated daughter of an Anglican bishop with a taste for unsuitable romances. From an early affair with a man who turns out to be homosexual, to an affair with an older lecturer she moves on to a surprise job at MI5 where she had a crush on one of her bosses, again and awkward, repressed and unattractive individual before encountering talented author Tom Haley as part of her job with whom she once again falls in love. Few of these men are what they seem, and neither for that matter is Serena when she has to hide her job from Haley.

The 1970s are very much in fashion for writers at the moment. For more '70s espionage check out [[The Girl in Berlin by Elizabeth Wilson]] while [[The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty]] is hugely evocative of the period in Ireland at the time. Dig out those flares and enjoy. Please remember The Bookbag cannot be held responsible for any fashion faux pas that may arise from this advice.

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[[Category:General Fiction]]