“The Pregnant Widow” is what British writer Martin Amis called his new novel. He borrowed the image from Herzen, who said that “the passing world leaves not an heir, but a pregnant widow.” But if Herzen had in mind the social revolution, then Amis had in mind the sexual revolution, which had a dramatic impact on his own fate and which he now presents a very harsh account of. Thus, the tragic story of his sister (in the book she goes by the name Violet), who became one of the many victims of the turbulent 60s and 70s, is woven into the narrative. The main character of the book, student Keith Nearing - the projection of Amis in the novel - spends his holidays in the company of young friends and girlfriends in an Italian castle, and four decades later he recalls the events of that summer of 1970, reflects on the sexual trauma he received then and crippled him for many years, and only now begins to truly understand what happened in the castle.