Ian Mcewan Popular Books

Ian Mcewan Biography & Facts

Ian Russell McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 19 in its list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture".McEwan began his career writing sparse, Gothic short stories. His first two novels, The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981), earned him the nickname "Ian Macabre". These were followed by three novels of some success in the 1980s and early 1990s. His novel Enduring Love was adapted into a film of the same name. He won the Booker Prize with Amsterdam (1998). His next novel, Atonement, garnered acclaim and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film featuring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. His later novels have included The Children Act, Nutshell, and Machines Like Me. He was awarded the 1999 Shakespeare Prize, and the 2011 Jerusalem Prize. Early life and education McEwan was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, on 21 June 1948, the son of David McEwan and Rose Lilian Violet (née Moore). His father was a working-class Scotsman who had worked his way up through the army to the rank of major.McEwan spent much of his childhood in East Asia (including Singapore), Germany, and North Africa (including Libya), where his father was posted. His family returned to England when he was 12 years old. He was educated at Woolverstone Hall School in Suffolk; the University of Sussex, where he received a degree in English literature in 1970; and the University of East Anglia, where he undertook a master's degree in literature (with the option to submit creative writing instead of a critical dissertation). Career 1975–1987: Short stories and 'Ian Macabre' phase McEwan's first published work was a collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites (1975), which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976. He achieved notoriety in 1979 when the BBC suspended production of his play Solid Geometry because of its supposed obscenity. His second collection of short stories, In Between the Sheets, was published in 1978. The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981), his two earliest novels, were both adapted into films. The nature of these works caused him to be nicknamed "Ian Macabre". These were followed by his first book for children, Rose Blanche (1985), and a return to literary fiction with The Child in Time (1987), winner of the 1987 Whitbread Novel Award. 1988–2007: Mainstream success and Booker Prize win After The Child in Time, McEwan began to move away from the darker, more unsettling material of his earlier career and towards the style that would see him reach a wider readership and gain significant critical acclaim. This new phase began with the publication of the mid-Cold War espionage drama The Innocent (1990), and Black Dogs (1992), a quasi-companion piece reflecting on the aftermath of the Nazi era in Europe and the end of the Cold War. McEwan followed these works with his second book for children, The Daydreamer (1994). His 1997 novel, Enduring Love, about the relationship between a science writer and a stalker, was popular with critics, although it was not shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was adapted into a film in 2004. In 1998, he won the Booker Prize for Amsterdam. His next novel, Atonement (2001), received considerable acclaim; Time magazine named it the best novel of 2002, and it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2007, the critically acclaimed film Atonement, directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, was released in cinemas worldwide. His next work, Saturday (2005), follows an especially eventful day in the life of a successful neurosurgeon. Saturday won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 2005. His novel On Chesil Beach (2007) was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize and was adapted into a film starring Saoirse Ronan in 2017, for which McEwan wrote the screenplay. McEwan has also written a number of produced screenplays, a stage play, children's fiction, and an oratorio and a libretto titled For You with music composed by Michael Berkeley. In 2006, McEwan was accused of plagiarism; specifically that a passage in Atonement (2001) closely echoed a passage from a memoir, No Time for Romance, published in 1977 by Lucilla Andrews. McEwan acknowledged using the book as a source for his work. McEwan had included a brief note at the end of Atonement, referring to Andrews's autobiography, among several other works. The incident recalled critical controversy over his debut novel The Cement Garden, key elements of the plot of which closely mirrored some of those of Our Mother's House, a 1963 novel by British author Julian Gloag, which had also been made into a film. McEwan denied charges of plagiarism, claiming he was unaware of the earlier work. Writing in The Guardian in November 2006, a month after Andrews' death, McEwan professed innocence of plagiarism while acknowledging his debt to the author of No Time for Romance. Several authors defended him, including John Updike, Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Keneally, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, and Thomas Pynchon. 2008–present: Political works and continued acclaim McEwan's first novel of the 2010s, Solar, was published by Jonathan Cape and Doubleday in March 2010. In June 2008 at the Hay Festival, McEwan gave a surprise reading of this work-in-progress. The novel includes "a scientist who hopes to save the planet" from the threat of climate change, with inspiration for the novel coming from a Cape Farewell expedition McEwan made in 2005 in which "artists and scientists...spent several weeks aboard a ship near the north pole discussing environmental concerns". McEwan noted "The novel's protagonist Michael Beard has been awarded a Nobel prize for his pioneering work on physics, and has discovered that winning the coveted prize has interfered with his work". He said that the work was not a comedy: "I hate comic novels; it's like being wrestled to the ground and being tickled, being forced to laugh", instead, that it had extended comic stretches. Solar was followed by McEwan's twelfth novel, Sweet Tooth, a meta-fictional historical novel set in the 1970s, and was published in late August 2012. In an interview with The Scotsman newspaper to coincide with publication, McEwan revealed that the impetus for writing Sweet Tooth had been "[...] a way in which I can write a disguised autobiography". He revealed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, in November 2012, that the film rights to Sweet Tooth had been bought by Working Title Films – the company that had adapted Atonement as a film. Sweet Tooth was followed two years later by The Children Act, which concerned High Court judges, UK family law, and the right to die.Two years after The Children Act, McEwan's 2016 novel Nutshell, a short novel closer in style and tone to his earlier works, was published. McEwan's next work, .... Discover the Ian Mcewan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ian Mcewan books.

Best Seller Ian Mcewan Books of 2024

  • Mademoiselle de Maupin synopsis, comments

    Mademoiselle de Maupin

    Theophile Gautier & Helen Constantine

    Chevalier d'Albert fantasizes about his ideal lover, yet every woman he meets falls short of his exacting standards of female perfection. Embarking on an affair with the lovely Ros...

  • Effi Briest synopsis, comments

    Effi Briest

    Theodor Fontane & Hugh Rorrison

    Unworldly young Effi Briest is married off to Baron von Innstetten, an austere and ambitious civil servant twice her age, who has little time for his new wife. Isolated and bored, ...

  • Summerwater synopsis, comments

    Summerwater

    Sarah Moss

    A BEST BOOK OF JANUARY: O MagazineA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR in the UK: The Guardian, The Times“[Moss] writes beautifully about... souls in tumult, about people whose lives have not t...

  • Case Histories synopsis, comments

    Case Histories

    Kate Atkinson

    The first book in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie Mysteries series, called "The best mystery of the decade" by Stephen King, finds private investigator Jackson Brodie following thre...

  • Conversaciones con Ian McEwan synopsis, comments

    Conversaciones con Ian McEwan

    Ryan Roberts

    Conversaciones con Ian McEwan reúne catorce entrevistas que abarcan cuarenta años de la trayectoria del autor de Expiación, Sábado y Chesil Beach. En diálogo con prestigiosos escri...

  • Tony and Susan synopsis, comments

    Tony and Susan

    Austin Wright

    Fifteen years ago, Susan Morrow left her first husband, Edward Sheffield, an unpublished writer. Now, she's enduring middle class suburbia as a doctor's wife, when out of the blue ...

  • The Fell synopsis, comments

    The Fell

    Sarah Moss

    “A slim, tense pageturner . . . I gulped The Fell down in one sitting.”Emma Donoghue, author of The Pull of the StarsFrom the awardwinning author of Ghost Wall and Summerwater, Sar...

  • Circus of Dreams synopsis, comments

    Circus of Dreams

    John Walsh

    Something extraordinary happened to the UK literary scene in the 1980s. In the space of eight years, a generation of young British writers took the literary novel into new realms o...

  • The Companions synopsis, comments

    The Companions

    Katie M. Flynn

    Station Eleven meets Never Let Me Go in this “suspenseful, introspective debut” (Kirkus Reviews) set in an unsettling near future where the dead can be uploaded to machines and kep...

  • Nothing On Earth synopsis, comments

    Nothing On Earth

    Conor O'Callaghan

    The critically acclaimed psychological chiller from a powerful new voice in Irish literary fiction.SHORTLISTED FOR THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2017 'As fine as it is fr...

  • The Legacy of Hartlepool Hall synopsis, comments

    The Legacy of Hartlepool Hall

    Paul Torday

    Hartlepool Hall has been in Ed's family for generations but is that about to change, and who is the mysterious Lady Alice?'A deliciously dark comedy about class, snobbery and a va...

  • The House in the Orchard synopsis, comments

    The House in the Orchard

    Elizabeth Brooks

    CrimeReads Best Gothic Fiction of 2022A BuzzFeed, Good Housekeeping, and Departures Magazine Best Book of Fall“Reading this one feels like wandering darkened hallways with a candle...

  • The Portable Atheist synopsis, comments

    The Portable Atheist

    Christopher Hitchens

    Christopher Hitchens's personally curated New York Times bestselling anthology of the most influential and important writings on atheism, including original pieces by Salman Rushdi...

  • Lessons synopsis, comments

    Lessons

    Ian McEwan

    NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER  A NEW YORKER ESSENTIAL READ  From the bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday comes the epic and intimate story of one man's life across ...

  • Six Records of a Floating Life synopsis, comments

    Six Records of a Floating Life

    Shen Fu

    Six Records of a Floating Life (1809) is an extraordinary blend of autobiography, love story and social document written by a man who was educated as a scholar but earned his livin...

  • Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories synopsis, comments

    Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories

    Giovanni Verga

    The stories of Giovanni Verga (18401922) are wonderful evocations of ordinary Italian life, focusing in particular on his native Sicily. In an original and dynamic prose style, he ...

  • Ian McEwan synopsis, comments

    Ian McEwan

    Lynn Wells

    This introduction to the work of Ian McEwan places his fiction in historical and theoretical context. It explores his biography, literary techniques and the issues of ethics and re...

  • Three Tales synopsis, comments

    Three Tales

    Gustave Flaubert & Roger Whitehouse

    First published in 1877, these three stories are dominated by questions of doubt, love, loneliness and religious experience, and together form a triumphant conclusion to Flaubert's...

  • Ian McEwan Bestsellers synopsis, comments

    Ian McEwan Bestsellers

    Ian McEwan

    These three bestselling novels by the Booker Awardwinning author explore the dark sides of love, family and sexuality.  The Child in Time On a routine Saturday morning trip to...

  • Nutshell synopsis, comments

    Nutshell

    Ian McEwan

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER A “suspenseful, dazzlingly clever and gravely profound” (The Washington Post) novel that brilliantly recasts Shakespeare and lends new weight to the ageold que...

  • Black Dogs synopsis, comments

    Black Dogs

    Ian McEwan

    Set in late 1980s Europe at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, this novel is the intimate story of the crumbling of a marriage, as witnessed by an outsiderfrom the Booker Pri...

  • This Will Change Everything synopsis, comments

    This Will Change Everything

    John Brockman

    “This Will Change Everything offers seemingly radical but actually feasible ideas with the potential to change the world.”Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Guns, Germs...

  • Inishowen synopsis, comments

    Inishowen

    Joseph O'Connor

    From the bestselling author of Star of the Sea and Shadowplay, 'a powerful, moving adventure of raw fate and betrayed love' (Independent on Sunday).Inspector Martin Aitken's life i...

  • Ian McEwan synopsis, comments

    Ian McEwan

    Jonathan Noakes & Margaret Reynolds

    In Vintage Living Texts teachers and students will find the essential guide to the works of Ian McEwan. This guide will deal with his themes, genre and narrative technique, and a c...

  • Ian McEwan synopsis, comments

    Ian McEwan

    Sebastian Groes

    Ian McEwan is one of the most significant, and controversial, British novelists working today. His books are both critically and academically acclaimed and embraced by readers ac...

  • Devotion synopsis, comments

    Devotion

    Marco Missiroli & Alex Valente

    NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES, COMING VALENTINE'S DAY 2022 'An absolute scorcher' Evening Standard'The book about infidelity that has shaken up Italy'The Times'Intimate and ultimat...

  • Summer Cooking synopsis, comments

    Summer Cooking

    Elizabeth David

    Summer Cooking first published in 1955 is Elizabeth David's wonderful selection of dishes, for table, buffet and picnic, that are light, easy to prepare and based on seasonal ing...

  • The Orange Girl synopsis, comments

    The Orange Girl

    Jostein Gaarder

    From the author of SOPHIE'S WORLD, a modern fairy tale with a philosophical twist.'It should be read by all' VOGUE'My father died eleven years ago. I was only four then. I never th...

  • The Shadow of War synopsis, comments

    The Shadow of War

    Stewart Binns

    The Shadow of War is the first novel in Stewart Binns's new series which will see a book release for each year of the First World War.June 1914. The beginning of another long, pros...

  • Life as Fiction - A Companion to Atonement by Ian McEwan synopsis, comments

    Life as Fiction - A Companion to Atonement by Ian McEwan

    Richard Rowe

    This is a reading companion for Atonement by Ian McEwanAtonement is one of those texts that should really be read twice and to reflect that, I've produced a reading companion which...

  • Heart of Darkness synopsis, comments

    Heart of Darkness

    Joseph Conrad

    The Penguin English Library Edition of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad'The mind of man is capable of anything because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the futur...

  • Sweet Tooth synopsis, comments

    Sweet Tooth

    Ian McEwan

    INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement, an “effortlessly seductive” novel (The New York Times) that masterfully entwines es...

  • Untouchable synopsis, comments

    Untouchable

    Mulk Raj Anand

    Mulk Raj Anand's extraordinarily powerful story of an Untouchable in India's caste system, with a new introduction by Ramachandra Guha, author of GandhiBakha is a proud and attract...

  • The Children Act synopsis, comments

    The Children Act

    Ian McEwan

    A brilliant, emotionally wrenching novel from the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement about a leading High Court judge who must resolve an urgent caseas well as...

  • King Lear synopsis, comments

    King Lear

    William Shakespeare & George Hunter

    'The most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world' Percy Bysshe ShelleyShakespeare's bleak and brutal tragedy begins when an ageing king, seeking a successor, re...

  • Atonement synopsis, comments

    Atonement

    Ian McEwan

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER A symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness that provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation w...

  • Ancient Worlds synopsis, comments

    Ancient Worlds

    Richard Miles

    Across the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Nile Delta, aweinspiring, monstrous ruins are scattered across the landscape vast palaces, temples, fortresses, shattered statues...

  • Bookmarked synopsis, comments

    Bookmarked

    Wendy W. Fairey

    Wendy Fairey grew up among books. As the shy and studious daughter of famed Hollywood columnist Sheilah GrahamF. Scott Fitzgerald’s lover during the last years of his lifeshe began...

  • The Darkness and the Thunder synopsis, comments

    The Darkness and the Thunder

    Stewart Binns

    The second in Stewart Binns' acclaimed Great War Series, The Darkness and the Thunder is a sweeping story of war following five families through the terrifying conditions of the We...

  • And Yet... synopsis, comments

    And Yet...

    Christopher Hitchens

    The seminal, uncollected essayslauded as “dazzling” (The New York Times Book Review)by the late Christopher Hitchens, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller God Is Not Great, s...

  • The Cockroach synopsis, comments

    The Cockroach

    Ian McEwan

    A brilliant, ofthemoment political satire like no other, from the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement. Kafka meets the world of Brexit in this bitingly funny no...

  • Machines Like Me synopsis, comments

    Machines Like Me

    Ian McEwan

    From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement”a sharply intelligent novel of ideas” (The New York Times) that asks whether a machine can understand the human hea...

  • The World According to Anna synopsis, comments

    The World According to Anna

    Jostein Gaarder & Donald Bartlett

    When fifteenyearold Anna begins receiving messages from another time, her parents take her to the doctor. But he can find nothing wrong; in fact he believes there may be some truth...

  • The Shroud synopsis, comments

    The Shroud

    Ian Wilson

    Two decades after radiocarbon dating declared the Turin Shroud a mediaeval fake, brandnew historical discoveries strongly suggest that this famous cloth, with its extraordinary pho...

  • Turbulence synopsis, comments

    Turbulence

    David Szalay

    A New York Times Book Review Editors’ ChoiceA “masterful” (The Washington Post), “cathartic” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), novel about twelve people, mostly strangers, and the surpr...

  • The Last Unknowns synopsis, comments

    The Last Unknowns

    John Brockman

    Discover the universe's last unknownshere are the unanswered questions that obsess "the world's finest minds" (The Guardian)Featuring a foreword by DANIEL KAHNE...

  • The Machine synopsis, comments

    The Machine

    James Smythe

    Shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award 2014, this is a Frankenstein tale for our time from one of the UK’s brightest new literary talents.Vic returned from war tormented by his ...