Fiona Maye is a leading High Court judge who presides over cases in the family court. She is renowned for her fierce intelligence, exactitude, and sensitivity. But her professional success belies private sorrow and domestic strife. There is the lingering regret of her childlessness, and now her marriage of thirty years is in crisis.
At the same time, she is called on to try an urgent case: Adam, a beautiful seventeen-year-old boy, is refusing for religious reasons the medical treatment that could save his life, and his devout parents echo his wishes. Time is running out. Should the secular court overrule sincerely expressed faith? In the course of reaching a decision, Fiona visits Adam in the hospital—an encounter that stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. Her judgment has momentous consequences for them both.
My Lady is Captivating. In this taut, meticulously assembled novel, there is a guaranteed central theme of our fragility and an absence of triumph if we disrupt the truths of someone else. We meet Fiona Maye on the first page; she is a British High Court Judge in the Family Division. At fifty-nine years old, she has worked hard to attain her stature and her decisions are painstakingly analyzed; she reviews her prose countless times before presenting final decisions. She is fully aware she is changing lives,…
“Had she lost him already?” I am a long-time fan of Ian McEwan and always look forward to his new books. This one is sterling and lives up to his best works.Fiona Maye is a judge in London’s family court. She oversees cases that deal primarily with children though she also handles divorce cases. As the book opens, Fiona is returning from a day at work and has just had a horrifying conversation with her husband Jack, a professor of ancient history. They have been married for 35 years and Jack has decided…