“McEwan’s new novel is a profound demonstration of his remarkable skill. The results are exciting.' - The New York Times Book Review More authors should repudiate their virtuosity.

One way to read Lessons is as a self-repudiation of the maneuver at which McEwan has become virtuosic. Nobody is better at writing about entropy and indignity - among other topics - than Ian McEwan.

A Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker.

Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?Įpic, mesmerizing, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times-a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.Ī New Yorker Essential Read His journey raises important questions for us all. Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means-music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life. Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down.

The pleasure in reading this novel is letting it wash over you.” - Associated Press One of the joys of the novel is the way it weaves history into Roland’s biography…. McEwan is a storyteller at the peak of his powers…. From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic, Roland Baines sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it.

From the best-selling author of Atonement and Saturday comes the epic and intimate story of one man's life across generations and historical upheavals.

Roland baines