"The Best of the Child" - Ian McEwan.

Title : "The best interest of the child " . Author : Ian McEwan. Translator (English): Michal Alfon. Publication: Am Oved , 195 pages , Publishing Year: 2015.

Details: Summary of the book : dilemmas facing a family court judge . Genre : Romance recommendation :. Excellent Todrus scale (see below) 4.5

Review ( spoiler !):

Trial opens : "London. June. One week after the start of the fourth quarter. It was summer weather resistance. Fiona who, judging the High Court, at her home on Sunday night, lying on the couch chaise longue narrow, staring across the legs with tights across the room, to view choppy Of bookshelves in the alcove of the wall by the fireplace and on the side, next to a long window, a tiny lithograph of a Renoir wash that thirty years ago had bought fifty pounds sterling "

The Hebrew translation of "The Child's Best" for the English name of The Childern's Act Points to the central dilemma of the book. The best interest of the child is the first paragraph of the British Youth Act of 1989 quoted at the beginning of the book. Judge Fiona Mei, who is a member of the High Court in London, is a sixty-year-old married woman with no children. Her responsibility is to decide in accordance with the law on parental disputes and all matters relating to rulings concerning children and youth. The book presents several sentences in which Fiona must decide on matters of education and matters of life and death. The decision is sometimes based on understanding between the British, the British liberal, the legal system and the law vis-a-vis other beliefs and a different philosophy with the perception of another culture. As in the case of a conflict between Jewish parents regarding the education of their child. A conflict between the haredi ultra-Orthodox worldview of the father and her education at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school for girls and the mother's desire for a mixed education open to local culture, with both boys and non-Jews. How we decide what the best interests of the child in this case, and how to judge between values, especially when they belong to foreign cultures

A complicated case of Siamese twins whose dilemma of separation lies in the fact that without separation, both will die and in separation sentence one of the twins to death. Some are waiting for the decision of God and others favor secession.

Throughout the story, in the background, a crisis in the marriage of the judge. His husband decided to leave the house for a young woman, claiming that this was the last chance to experience something exciting in the light of married life without their present kind of sex. McEwan, in his rare capacity, described their distant relationship, the description of delicate details during an evening at home, certain gestures, , A stuttering attempt to speak, all these paint the tension between the couple in delicate brush strokes. Sensibly, he presents the judge who deals with deep decisions when her world of emotions is undermined and her family base wobbles. This is a fundamental dilemma for those who have to decide on heavy issues, out of professionalism and discretion that is detached from the personal experience and is bothered precisely by the personal sphere. She is hurt by her husband's desire to start a novel "I need it ... this is my last chance." But she must be the judge who puts the rational consideration into the chaos of a disintegrating family life.

The main issue is that of a boy who is ill from the community of Jehovah's Witnesses and a leukemia who needs blood transfusion as part of the treatment but refuses to accept it because his faith forbids it. His parents and community leaders support his decision. However, the boy is still not 18 years old and the hospital has turned to the court to force the treatment without which he will die or remain severely injured and disabled.

During the discussion Fiona asks to meet the boy, who turns out to be intelligent and mature, sensitive and charming, who understands the meaning of his decision. The judge is taken over in his own image and deviates from the required formalities and maintains a friendly conversation with unclear boundaries.

After he has decided his fate, he becomes attached to it with the confused love of an adolescent, writing apologetic letters that do not receive a response. The climax of the book is tragic, as an unexpected encounter between them is surprised by the intensity of his feelings, tries to deal with the matter rationally, but for a moment it reveals human fragility, those seconds of the Sahos that turn the discussion from cold human and emotional rationality. In so doing, McEwan strips rational liberalism for a moment and undermines the world with Fiona and with him the world of Adam, the young boy. This appeal underscores the weakness of secular Western liberalism in the face of the heat and emotion of religious faith.

Mac Ewan's good books.