Solar
is an engrossing and satirical novel which focuses on climate
change. It is a stylish new work by one of the world’s
greatest living writers about one man’s ambitions and self-deceptions.
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.’
Note to Journalists and Reviewers:
Publisher publicity contact information
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Conversations with Ian McEwan collects
sixteen interviews, conducted over three decades, with
some of the greatest minds of his time - Martin Amis, Christopher
Ricks, Zadie Smith, Ian Hamilton, Antony Gormley, David Remnick,
and Steven Pinker - provide readers the most in-depth portrait
available of the author and his works.
Readers will find McEwan to be just as engaging,
humorous, and intelligent as his writings suggest. The volume
includes interviews from British, Spanish, French, and American
sources, two interviews previously available only in audio format,
and a new interview conducted with the book's editor.
Ryan Roberts, editor. Conversations with Ian McEwan University
Press of Mississippi, March 2010. 224 pp.
ISBN: 9781604734201
Wroe, Nicholas. 'Ian
McEwan: "It's good to get your hands dirty a bit".'
The Guardian, 6 March 2010 [McEwan on his new novel Solar;
published in print as 'Ian McEwan: A Life in Writing', Guardian
Review, 6 March 2010: 10].
Brown, Mick. 'Warming
to the Topic of Climate Change.' Telegraph, 11 March 2010
[Interview; published in print as 'Warming to the Task', Telegraph
Magazine, 13 March 2010: 24,25,27,28,30,31].
'You
ask... Ian McEwan.' Waterstone's BooksQuarterly, March
2010 [Interview: Waterstone’s Cardholders interview McEwan about
his new novel].
Levy, Paul. 'From
Steamy Italy to Frozen Fjords.' Wall Street Journal, 26
March 2010 [Rev. of The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis and Solar
by Ian McEwan].
Nicholson, Geoff. 'Solar,
by Ian McEwan.' San Francisco Chronicle, 26 March 2010.
Mitchison, Graeme. 'Imagining
a Universe for Ian McEwan.' New Scientist, 31 March 2010
[Graeme Mitchison is a physicist at the Centre for Quantum Computation
at the University of Cambridge. McEwan asked for his assistance with
certain aspects of the novel Solar].
Bentley, Daniel. 'Solar
by Ian McEwan.' The Northern Echo, 3 April 2010 ["[W]ith
his portrayal of Beard, the Booker winner finds new range in his voice,
masterfully blending satire and comedy with the suspense and pathos
that have long been his forte"].
