See also: BOOKS / TRANSLATIONS / RESOURCES

You can hear Ian McEwan reading from the title story below and read his detailed discussion of the collection on the Vintage website.

Editions

London: Cape, 1975 (165 p., ISBN: 0224010956).

New York: Random House, 1975 (165 p., ISBN: 0394494229).

London: Pan Books, 1976 (125 p., ISBN: 0330248308).

New York: Berkley Books, 1980 (196 p., ISBN: 0425045013).

Erste Liebe, letzte Riten (German). Zürich: Diogenes, 1980 (267 p.).

New York: Penguin Books, 1989 (125 p., ISBN: 0140112804).

New York: Vintage International, 1994 (165 p., ISBN: 0679750193).

London: Vintage, 1997 (161 p., ISBN: 0099754819).

Trimark Home Video, 1997 (94 min., VHS / ISBN: 1573624632) [With Natasha Gregson Wagner, Giovanni Ribisi, and Jesse Peretz].

Selected Reviews and Criticism

Barnes, Julian, 'Tall Truths', New Statesman, 2 May 1975: 600.

Annan, Gabriele, 'Liquid Assets', Times Literary Supplement, 16 May 1975: 529.

Ackroyd, Peter, 'Traditional', Spectator , 17 May 1975: 613-614.

Bannon, Barbara A., 'PW Forecasts: Fiction', Publishers Weekly, 19 May 1975: 170-171.

Raban, Jonathan, 'Exiles: New Fiction', Encounter, 44:6, June 1975: 81.

O'Hara, J. D. 'Fiction', Library Journal, 15 June 1975: 1241.

Adams, Phoebe. Atlantic, 236:83, July 1975.

Wade, Rosalind, 'Quarterly Fiction Review', Contemporary Review, 227:1314, July 1975: 45-49.

McMurtry, Larry, 'Short Stories: Witty but Fragmented, Fine and Creepy', Washington Post, 4 August 1975: B7.

Novak, William. 'McEwan's Stories Are a Dazzling Alternative to the Novel', Chicago Tribune Book World, 10 August 1975: 3.

Mewshaw, Michael, 'Sounds Lurid, Reads Poignant', New York Times Book Review, 28 September 1975: 32, 34.

Dick, Kay, 'Short Stories to Savour', The Times (London), 4 December 1976: 7.

Ford, Richard. 'Post-Mortem: The Youth Culture', Michigan Quarterly Review, 16:1, 1977: 109-112.

Muchnick, Laurie. 'You Must Dismember This', Village Voice, 35:35, 28 August 1990: 102.

Itakura, Gen'ichiro. '"Very Flat, Norfolk"?', Eigo Seinen/Rising Generation, 149:3, June 2003: 170.