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“My encounters with books I regard very much as my encounters with other phenomena of life or thought. All encounters are configurate, not isolate.” — Henry Miller

And so it goes with Ian McEwan’s dozen or so novels, linked not only by their author and his smart prose but also by the extremes I’ve experienced reading them.

I threw “Atonement” (2003) across the room because, really, her crime is so great there’s no atoning.

His “Saturday” (2006) had me in its grip — until it didn’t. That home invasion was not believable.

But then I gobbled up “Solar,” (2011) McEwan’s delicious satire of science and academia.

So what’s a girl to do when McEwan puts out “Sweet Tooth,” his newest book, to good reviews? Buy it, of course, pre-release. In hardcover.

And then I set it on my stack.

From which I snatched it, packing for a week and more in the Florida sun, where I could read beside the pool and at night in the comfy-chaired lanai, while my family watched re-runs of “30 Rock” or some such in the next room.

I am returned from the fla la life in the sun and have this to report: “Sweet Tooth” is my new favorite McEwan, and one of the best reads of the past year.

What makes it so good? Unity of time, place and action. Also its narrator and main character, Serena Frome. In the book’s first sentence she tells us that as a young woman in the early 1970’s she botched a job working for the British Security Service (M15, their CIA) ruining her own career and that of her lover’s.

It’s a catchy, trashy start, but there’s nothing cheap about this story’s telling. Beautiful Serena, a Cambridge graduate and Bishop’s daughter, lands an entry-level job at her country’s intelligence agency. The Cold War shows no sign of defrosting; Serena is recruited to offer financial support, through a fake foundation, to a promising writer whose articles and novels might celebrate the good life in the West.

Along with Serena we read the work of Tom Handy, a candidate for the stipend. These stories within the story are magnificent…and twisted…and hard to shake. They gave me nightmares.

Handy gets the stipend. He also gets the girl. From there the plot turns with loud, enjoyable creaks. Who Serena loves — where and when and why — creates outrageous complications.

At its end, “Sweet Tooth” delivers a neat and pleasing twist.

A wonderful read. (Harry liked it, too.)