Gunn Memorial Library Friday Afternoon Book Club - Amsterdam, by Ian McEwan
The library’s book clubs are participating in the Winter 2026 Reading Challenge, which highlights titles from the Booker Prize reading list. Join us for another vibrant discussion.
On a cold February afternoon, two longtime friends, Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday, reunite among mourners gathered outside a London crematorium to honor the life of Molly Lane. Once, both her lovers, Molly was a brilliant, charismatic woman whose influence lingers long after her death. Now in middle age, Clive is a celebrated composer at the height of his career, while Vernon is a powerful newspaper editor navigating the ethical tensions of modern journalism.
As memories of Molly resurface, so do old rivalries, ambitions, and resentments—complicated further by her past affair with Julian Garmony, a controversial right-wing politician poised to lead the nation. In the aftermath of the funeral, Clive and Vernon enter into a seemingly simple pact, one born of friendship and moral certainty. But as personal failings and public pressures collide, their agreement sets off a chain of events neither man could have anticipated.
Sharp, darkly comic, and unsettling, Amsterdam is a provocative exploration of friendship, morality, and the dangerous ease with which principles can be compromised.
Registration is required: https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/gml-friday-book-club-amsterdam-by-ian-mcewan/Copies of the book are available at the circulation desk.
