伊恩•麦克尤恩（1948—），本科毕业于布莱顿的苏塞克斯大学，于东英吉利大学取得硕士学位。从一九七四年开始，麦克尤恩在伦敦定居，次年发表的第一部中短篇集就得到了毛姆文学奖。此后他的创作生涯便与各类奖项的入围名单互相交织，其中《阿姆斯特丹》获布克奖，《时间中的孩子》获惠特布莱德奖，《赎罪》获全美书评人协会奖。近年来，随着麦克尤恩在主流文学圈获得越来越高的评价，在图书市场上创造越来越可观的销售记录，他已经被公认为英国的“国民作家”，他的名字已经成为当今英语文坛上“奇迹”的同义词。

Ian McEwan has written two collections of stories, First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets, and thirteen novels, The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers, The Child in Time, The Innocent, Black Dogs, The Daydreamer, Enduring Love, Amsterdam, Atonement, Saturday, On Chesil Beach, Solar and Sweet Tooth. He won the Booker Prize for Amsterdam in 1998.

WINNER OF THE SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD

'A talented and genuinely imaginative writer. Mr McEwan's details often grow into strange, powerful images ... the ironies, throughout this impressive collection, are tellingly weighted'

JULIAN BARNES

'A brilliant performance ... There's an assured and terribly macabre depravity about Ian McEwan's short stories ...as if some of the characters from early Angus Wilson had been painted by Francis Bacon'

ANTHONY HWAITE, OBSERVER

《最初的爱情，最后的仪式》是英国“国民作家”麦克尤恩的处女作兼成名作，荣获毛姆文学奖，“恐怖伊恩”的绰号由此而诞生。

八个短篇分别经由青少年男性的视角出发，讲述了八段情节各异却又情绪共通的故事，或恐怖或暴烈，或残酷或变态，或荒唐或魔幻，同时却既温柔又感伤；就像每个人都会经历的疯魔而又伤感的青春期，是每个人都可以从中烛照出自我的“青春残酷物语”。