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  • Solar

  • By: Ian McEwan
  • Narrated by: Roger Allam
  • Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (493 ratings)
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Solar cover art

Solar

By: Ian McEwan
Narrated by: Roger Allam
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Summary

Features the author in converstation with his editor, Dan Franklin.

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.

A compulsive womaniser, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. But this time it is different: she is having the affair, and he is still in love with her.

When Beard’s professional and personal worlds collide in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself for him to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career, and save the world from environmental disaster.

Ranging from the Arctic Circle to the deserts of New Mexico, Solar is a serious and darkly satirical novel, showing human frailty struggling with the most pressing and complex problem of our time. A story of one man’s greed and self-deception, it is a profound and stylish new work from one of the world’s great writers.

©2010 Ian McEwan (P)2010 Random House Audiobooks

Critic reviews

'[A] novel that promises comedy as well as crisis.' ( The Guardian)
"McEwan's pure, direct prose always lends itself well to audio... Roger Allam's studiously straight-faced reading sets the perfect tone for this subtle satire". ( The Times)

What listeners say about Solar

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Roald Dahl meets Martin Amis

I've enjoyed all of the Ian McEwan books I have listened to and this is one of the best. He combines really clever writing with a liking for macabre plot twists and dark humour. There are some excellent set-pieces in the novel, my favourites being his descriptions of a nasty accident on a snow-mobile and of a stand-off over a packet of salt and vinegar crisps. The narrator did an excellent job. It is hard to find fault with this book if you are a fan.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Quite excellent

I am ashamed to say that I really enjoyed the main character, Michael Beard, captured with flair and depth by the narrator. This book ticked all the boxes for me - humour, science, womanising, supreme confidence, thoughtfulness and eventual comeuppance (regretfully). Buy it and enjoy - I will now read it for myself. The interview at the end with the magnificent Ian McEwan is an added bonus.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Man made global warming

Like a coordinated air strike, Ian McEwan tries to reach many different targets in his new novel. As the interview with the writer included with the audio-book reveals, solar was going to be from the very beginning a novel about global warming. However although McEwan is a known proselytizer in this area, the characters in the novel are equivocal, until self interest and nothing more causes them to change sides. The central character of the book is a Nobel prize winning physicist who is trading on his former reputation both in the lecture room and in his personal life, and it is in the latter area in which he has problems as the book opens with his latest wife conducting her own extra marital experiments. The cleverly constructed story includes a great amount of accurate detail about contemporary physics as well as borrowing elements used in thrillers. The plot is an international as a James Bond novel, moving from suburban home county intrigues, a polar expedition, a South American experimental site and a North American trailer park. The more enjoyable sections would be the unintentional consequences of being caught short in sub zero temperatures, and a naive comment about gender predispositions leading to vilification in all sections of the press.

Roger Allam is a perfect choice for a reader of this novel. He portrays the worldly, self interested central character extremely well and his voice is well suited to McEwans slightly misanthropic and detached narrative.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Ms
  • 11-03-16

Good but a bit typical

I say this becuase although I love Ian Mc books I get irritated by his seemingly sexist views on teh nature of relationships between men and women. They are overtly fantasies of his and I cant help thinking that in some way he 'gets of' on the analogies he uses when referring to 'their amazing sex life' the slipping and sliding of tongues at the most in opportune moments. It puts me off his work, despite it being brilliant in other respects. I urn for his brilliance in writing and story telling but each time I start a new one, i wait with apprehension for the tongues and the sex bits which quite frankly are unrealistic and could only be written in this precise way by a man.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Black comedy

An amusing black comedy, a parable of modern consumer society and an exposition of global warming. I was surprised to enjoy my time spent with such an unpleasant main protagonist but the irony and sarcasm are perfectly British and the plot twist around a third of the way through led the story down a compelling path. I started out with some tredipation that it was going to preach but although McEwan gets the point across he leaves the humour to do the work amidst some brilliant writing and excellent narration.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Highly recommended

This is my first McEwan book but will not be my last. It has some genuine laugh-out-loud moments framed within a great story. The author knows his art and he weaves an elegant plot around environmental issues without at any time preaching or making one feel guilty for taking up space on the planet. This is not a lecture on the controversial subject, but uses its weight only as a backdrop to the main character's at times unethical, criminal and hilariously funny conduct. Highly recommended as a well-narrated, slightly unsettling but entirely enjoyable book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A review of Solar by Ian McEwan

This is hilarious in a modern satirical way, which suits the deep voice of the dead pan narrator. The serious message on green issues is given good airing and the facts and figures appear well researched, providing another great hook. The bumbling ageing farcical main character reminds me of Martin Amis' John Self in either Money or London Fields. A whole range of modern day processes are sent up, from commuting to academia. Works very well as an audio book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

McEwan is an excellent storyteller, unfortunately, the narrator is not.

In contrast to the majority of reviewers, I did not enjoy the narration. I found it boring, not at all engaging and found myself spacing out as the narrator droned on and on. It felt like being lectured rather than being told a story. It was a feat of endurance to finish the book which is not how it should be, especially with an author like McEwan.

I don't know whether it's that his books don't translate well to audio or in my view, down to a poor choice of narrators but this is not the first time the narrator has spoilt one of McEwan's novels.

I think I'll stick to reading his books in future rather than listening.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Clever and entertaining

I greatly enjoyed this cleverly constructed book that meshed scientific ideas with a pacy and humorous story. The central character, physics professor Michael Beard, is a memorable creation: a conceited misogynist who had one brilliant scientific insight early in his career but little since, yet he is strangely endearing as he stumbles through one disaster after another, bemoans his ever-increasing bulk and yet cannot resist junk food. There are several hilarious scenes but also salutary reminders of the dire-straights the world is in owing to global warming. The author has evidently done a great deal of research to make the scientific content authentic but deftly incorporates the facts into an engaging story full of twists of fate and the vicissitudes of human relationships.

It's a marvellous book made all the better by Roger Allam's performance.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

SUNBAKED...

fine literature may not be equated with superficial, cultural sunbathing. the main character, a nobel laureate who is very human and a real schmuck: after all, we do live in anti-hero times. enjoyable in parts, as a sunbaked comedy. in other areas however, the plot turns into cracked pottery, for taking itself too seriously. a good read, with some chuckles, but far from being outstanding. OOOH, I hate to see good opps. wasted. nevertheless the narrator deserves our undivided reverence for his superb work.

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1 person found this helpful