A beautiful piece of literature in which
Ian McEwan explores the idea of
rationality and what constitutes proof of reality. He does this by developing two characters: a rational
science writer and an extreme ideological religious believer and proceedes to crash them into each other by means of a fatal
accident. After the accident Jed, the devout Christian, is convinced that level-headed Joe has fallen in
love with him. Jed has discovered that his
life is contingent on Joe's for any meaning. Jed's love becomes obsessive; this is paralelled by Joe's obsessive re-examination of his own life. Joe remains calm although as he continues his re-examination he discovers that many
ideas he has previously been able to explain through science become less black and white. Gradually everything he was sure of becomes questionable until his rational mind starts to be contaminated by questions.