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Solar
by Ian McEwan

Published: 2010-03-30
Hardcover : 304 pages
1 member reading this now
5 clubs reading this now
5 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 2 of 2 members
The literary event of the season: a new novel from Ian McEwan, as surprising as it is masterful.

Michael Beard is 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 ...
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Introduction

(The literary event of the season: a new novel from Ian McEwan, as surprising as it is masterful.

Michael Beard is 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. While he coasts along in his professional life, Michael's personal life is another matter entirely. His fifth marriage is crumbling under the weight of his infidelities. But this time the tables are turned: His wife is having an affair, and Michael realizes he is still in love with her.

When Michael's personal and professional lives begin to intersect in unexpected ways, an opportunity presents itself in the guise of an invitation to travel to New Mexico. Here is a chance for him to extricate himself from his marital problems, reinvigorate his career, and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster. Can a man who has made a mess of his life clean up the messes of humanity?

A complex novel that brilliantly traces the arc of one man's ambitions and self-deceptions, Solar is a startling, witty, and stylish new work from one of the world's great writers.

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Excerpt

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Discussion Questions

Suggested by Members

Can McEwan be described as a realist?
What are the redeeming characteristics of Michael Beard?
by jlrubas (see profile) 10/09/10

Notes From the Author to the Bookclub

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Book Club Recommendations

Solar
by jlrubas (see profile) 10/09/10
Serve small packages of salt and vinegar chips!

Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
by Nash N. (see profile) 12/10/18

 
  "Comic and Serious"by ELIZABETH V. (see profile) 09/01/11

Although the two reviews of SOLAR that I read would put off a less die-hard McEwan fan, I found it to be, first, a comical view of the irony of global-warming and environmental activism, lat... (read more)

 
  "Solar: Interesting characters and situations"by Janet R. (see profile) 10/09/10

Climate change is accepted as a given in this book: ideas for dealing wtih it drive the novel. McEwan describes beautifully. Situations in the book have the reader laughing out loud or cringing. Very,... (read more)

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