Article Tags: Book, Ian McEwan
I just noticed this comment from an article from the Sunday Times by Maurice Chittenden
IT was meant to be a cultural response to climate change. The mission: charter a sailing boat in the Arctic and take 12 leading artists and writers to ponder on the perils of climate change in their work.
Unfortunately, no one seems to have explained the plot to Ian McEwan, the novelist. His new work, Solar, sends up the expedition with such glee that it has received a frosty reception from some of his fellow adventurers.
So I thought I would look at the Ian McEwan site and see what all the fuss is about, and here is what I found…..
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.’
I look forward to reading this, good luck Ian