British novelist Ian McEwan's 15th work "Nutshell" was published in the UK on September 1. This peculiar fantasy novel is very different from McEwan's previous realistic style. The narrator of the novel is a fetus still in the mother's womb. Through his perspective, it tells a story of conspiracy and revenge in the triangle relationship between father, mother and uncle.

"Nutshell" is obviously a parody of "Hamlet", and its name comes from the famous line of the Danish prince: "Even if I am locked in a nutshell, I still think I am the king of the infinite universe." The setting of the novel shifts from Elsinore Castle in Denmark to a Georgian mansion in London. The house was inherited from the family by the fetus's father, John, a poet and publisher, and has a market price of up to 7 million pounds. John's brother Claude is a real estate developer. He and Trudy, the mother of the fetus, conspired to poison John to obtain the property. This vicious plot was overheard by the fetus, but he was trapped in his mother's womb and unable to carry out revenge.

In McEwan's setting, the reason why the fetus is intellectually precocious is that his mother likes to listen to BBC radio and audio books. Therefore, outside of the plot line of the novel, this worried fetus often expresses his views on social issues. For example, regarding Brexit, he said: "The secular dream of a united Europe may be dissolved by ancient hatreds." He also agreed with Thomas Piketty on inequality: "I have good reason to suspect that poverty is a form of deprivation at all levels." ”In addition, he also expressed his views on transgender issues, Islamic issues, and university climate issues.

In a book review in the Financial Times, Christopher Tayler believed that McEwan's strength lies in his imaginative precision and control of the narrative rhythm of the story, but "Nutshell" is mixed with a large number of sentences that are unclear and rhetorical. To put it bluntly, this book just wraps up ordinary ideas in novel settings. But a more benign interpretation might be that McEwan, a master carpenter, created an embroidery work just to try something new.

On August 29, McEwan was interviewed by a reporter from the Guardian in a live broadcast. He said: "This fetus has a more radical attitude towards life. Between the radical leftists, Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and another Labor MP Owen Smith, I don't know which side he will lean towards, but I know he has a strong sense of social justice." He is easily aggrieved by phenomena, and I do not entirely support his views. ”

However, in reality, it seems that many of the thoughts of McEwan's protagonists are reflections of the author's own thoughts. The Booker Prize winner was embroiled in a Twitter crisis earlier this year after he appeared to question transsexuality during a speech at the Royal Academy, sparking a backlash on Twitter. However, in "Nutshell", the protagonist's fetus also faces the problem of gender selection.

McEwan explained: "His hands touched his small body, and he realized that this was a part of himself. He instantly felt a huge sense of loss." Why are there only two options: boys and girls? He feels that human beings should have multiple forms. Just like human beings’ boundless thoughts, gender should also be diverse. But the reality is that humans only have two genders to choose from, which is so sad. When he learned about the existence of gender diversity in the world, his first reaction was to set off firecrackers to celebrate. ”

McEwan recalled his childhood past. He once told his mother that he "really wanted to become a girl", but his mother's attitude was very cold. He said: "I don't want to be transgender, but when I see the boys on the playground playing football and fighting with each other, and the girls standing nearby chatting together, I really want to join the group of girls." ”

Obviously, McEwan is very aware of the increasing diversity of genders, and he is very happy to see society's respect for transgender people. However, he and the fetus he wrote seem to be dissatisfied with the current situation of the university, believing that "the intellectuals have very contradictory ideas. They have not provided a good platform and safe space for transgender people, nor have they paid enough attention to this issue." ”

As for the innocent fetus in the novel, McEwan said: "The protagonist in the book believes that people should enter college fearlessly and should look forward to college life because they can hear perspectives from others that are different from their own." I'd expected some disapproval, but I'd been through what it felt like to be questioned and it wasn't a big deal. ”

McEwan revealed more of his thoughts: "You cannot let gender become a barrier to your political career, nor can you let it become a stumbling block." You have to put yourself in the shoes of other groups. The political climate on American university campuses worries me, but now it has spread to the UK. People do not care about climate change, wealth distribution, and poverty issues. Instead, they stay in their own little worlds and only care about their own affairs. It is true that for everyone, self is the most important and one's own vital interests are the most important to care about, especially when people are still young. To me, this phenomenon is paradoxical but interesting. ”