Call them transcripts of dreams or deadly accurate maps of the tremor zones of the psyche, the seven stories in this collection engage and implicate us in the most fearful ways imaginable. A two-timing pornographer becomes an unwilling object in the fantasies of one of his victims. A jaded millionaire buys himself the perfect mistress and plunges into a hell of jealousy and despair. And in the course of a weekend with his teenage daughter, a guilt-ridden father discovers the depths of his own blundering innocence. At once chilling and beguiling, and written in prose of lacerating beauty, In Between the Sheets is a tour de force by one of England's most acclaimed practitioners of literary unease.

伊恩·麥剋尤恩（1948—），本科畢業於布萊頓的蘇塞剋斯大學，於東英吉利大學取得碩士學位。從一九七四年開始，麥剋尤恩在倫敦定居，次年發錶的第一部中短篇集就得到瞭毛姆文學奬。此後他的創作生涯便與各類奬項的入圍名單互相交織，其中《阿姆斯特丹》獲布剋奬，《時間中的孩子》獲惠特布萊德奬，《贖罪》獲全美書評人協會奬。近年來，隨著麥剋尤恩在主流文學圈獲得越來越高的評價，在圖書市場上創造越來越可觀的銷售記錄，他已經被公認為英國的“國民作傢”，他的名字已經成為當今英語文壇上“奇跡”的同義詞。