McEwan's works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim. He won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976 for his first collection of short stories First Love, Last Rites; the Whitbread Novel Award (1987) and the Prix Fémina Etranger (1993) for The Child in Time; and Germany's Shakespeare Prize in 1999. He has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction numerous times, winning the award for Amsterdam in 1998. His novel Atonement received the WH Smith Literary Award (2002), National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award (2003), Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction (2003), and the Santiago Prize for the European Novel (2004). He was awarded a CBE in 2000. In 2006, he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Saturday and his novel On Chesil Beach was named Galaxy Book of the Year at the 2008 British Book Awards where McEwan was also named Reader's Digest Author of the Year.

McEwan lives in London and is currently writing a new novel. His most recently published work is For You, a libretto.

Random House is delighted to announce the publication of a new novel by Ian McEwan, Solar.

Solar is an engrossing and satirical novel which focuses on climate change and will be published on 18 March 2010. This story – of one man’s ambitions and self-deceptions – is a stylish new work by one of the word’s greatest living writers.

Michael Beard is in his late fifties; bald, overweight, unprepossessing – a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. An inveterate philanderer, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. When Beard’s professional and personal worlds are entwined in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself, a chance for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster.

Dan Franklin, Publisher, comments: ‘Solar is a novel about one of the most serious threats to our world – global warming – but is also very, very funny. It shows a fresh side to Ian McEwan’s work, that he’s a comic writer of genius.’

Visit your local independent bookshop to order Ian McEwan's books, or purchase them online via Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Borders, Nan A. Talese, Powell's, Jonathan Cape, Vintage, Random House Canada, Random House Australia, localbookshops.co.uk, Waterstone's, or from a variety of Independent Booksellers.

Pim, Keiron. "McEwan's Novel Take on Climate Change." Eastern Daily Press Books, 3 August 2009 [McEwan discusses his next novel, expected to be published in 2010].

From the interview: “That's another problem with writing about climate change - it's full of facts and figures. We're putting into the atmosphere 16 gigatons of carbon every year; it takes 16 terrawatts to run civilisation. It's very necessary to keep these out. My character is engaged in a project to use light to split water, imitating something of the process of photosynthesis. Even writing sentences about splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, already I know that about half the readers [will] see the names of those gases and their minds white out. Just seeing the word 'hydrogen', they panic."

Continuum is generously giving away free copies of Ian McEwan: Contemporary Critical Perspectives to undergraduate students. If you wish to enter the competition, please answer the following three questions:

1. What was the illustrious nickname Ian McEwan acquired in the 1970s?

2. In which unnamed city is The Comfort of Strangers set?

3. From which Jane Austen novel does Atonement take its epigraph?

The first ten students who email the correct answers will be sent a copy of the guide.

Please send an email with your answers to:
ccoalter@continuumbooks.com and include your name, the name of your university and your preferred postal address.

The competition ends when the tenth book has been given away. Good luck!

Ian McEwan:
Contemporary Critical Perspectives
Edited by Sebastian Groes
Continuum, 2009.
ISBN: 9780826497222

Purchase online from Continuum, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, BN.com, or a wide selection of high-quality Independent Booksellers.

Charles Frieth, preeminent composer, conductor and prodigious womaniser, is preparing for a performance of one of his early works, and the world premiere of "Demonic Aubade". Obstinate and myopic, he is oblivious to the growing turmoil around him; his wife's poor health and dissatisfaction; the exhausted efforts of his secretary; and, the disquieting diligence of his housekeeper, Maria.

As the first performance draws near, the maestro is suddenly awoken to the chaos, and as Charles struggles to regain control of his life, a terrible tragedy begins to unfold. "For You" is a beautifully wrought and compelling libretto - It is Ian McEwan at his very best.

Order a copy online via Vintage, Amazon.co.uk, or from a variety of quality Independent Booksellers.