Sweet Tooth - Libro en Inglés

Sweet Tooth – Ian McEwan

In the early 1970s, Serena Frome is a beautiful young Cambridge graduate who loves reading novels, though she studied mathematics. Her intelligence and her secret affair with an older man, a professor with connections to the intelligence world, lead her to be recruited by MI5, Britain’s domestic security service.

Sweet Tooth, by Booker Prize-winning author Ian McEwan, follows Serena as she takes on a junior role at MI5 during the Cold War. Before long, she is given a special assignment as part of a covert operation called Sweet Tooth, a program designed to fund writers whose work is sympathetic to the West, without their knowledge, as a way of influencing culture in the ideological struggle against communism.

Serena’s target is Tom Haley, a promising young writer of short stories. Posing as a representative of a foundation, she offers him financial support so that he can devote himself to writing. But Serena, a passionate reader, soon falls for Tom and his work, and the two begin a romantic relationship. As her feelings deepen, she struggles with the deception at the heart of their relationship, knowing that if Tom discovers the truth, it could destroy everything.

Set against the backdrop of 1970s Britain, with its strikes, political tensions and cultural changes, the novel combines espionage, romance and literary games, exploring questions about truth, fiction, loyalty and the relationship between writers and readers. Its final pages offer a clever twist.

Elegant and absorbing, Sweet Tooth is a rewarding read for fans of Ian McEwan, literary fiction and spy stories. It contains some sexual content and mature themes.