The Booker Prize-winning novelist on separating author from character, how short stories help writers, and the reflective nature of his new novel, Lessons.
The novel "Lessons" by Ian McEwan traces the arc of a man’s life, and the struggle to overcome the stain of early abuse, to find his footing.
The British writer's ambitious tale charts the relationship between an ordinary man’s travails and decades of geopolitical upheaval. A review by Kevin Canfield.
"Roland occasionally reflected on the events and accidents, personal and global, minuscule and momentous that had formed and determined his existence." That one sentence in Ian McEwan's new novel, "Lessons," nicely sums up the book. McEwan is a storyteller at the peak of his powers and this deserves to be near the top of the "best books of 2022" list.
FICTION: An ambitious novel charts the relationship between an ordinary man's travails and decades of geopolitical upheaval. "Lessons" by Ian McEwan; Alfred A. Knopf (448 pages, $30) ——— It's the