Ian McEwan

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Michael Beard coasts through his professional life as his fifth marriage disintegrates, but gets an unexpected chance at redemption when he is called on to save humanity from environmental disaster.

A Novel

Solar

Michael Beard is a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. A compulsive womaniser, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. But this time it is different: his wife 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 Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and save the world from environmental disaster.

Andrew John Kinney

This was an interesting McEwan novel, and I wondered after finishing it, what does he really think about science, so I listened to a few interviews that he had given about the book. It turns out that his beliefs align with mine, in that he feels it is necessary to be educated both in the humanities and in the sciences in order to properly appreciate and understand the world. It is an interesting fact that most Nobel Prize winners in STEM subjects are also at least conversant in some subject completely unrelated to to STEM, whether that is music, poetry, theater, or literature (see the book, Range, for a detailed discussion of this phenomenon). It is also true that the miraculous gifts of understanding that produced the prize-winning work of Einstein, Heisenberg, Fermi, Feynman, Dirac, or Goedel uniformly occurred when the scientists were young men; Einstein produced Relativity at the age of 26 and the rest of his life was spent refining his ideas, but he really did nothing as groundbreaking as in 1905 ever again. This is the pattern; there is something special about a youthful human mind's ability to process mathematics and science.

So his protagonist, Michael Beard, is typical of a certain type of Nobel winner, not Einstein, not Fermi (one is reminded a bit of James Watson), basking in the accomplishments of his younger self, dining out on his reputation, and finding lovers the same way. This book is a comedy in the sense that, as McEwan says, Dante meant it, as Beard stumbles from one project to another radiating the glow of the Nobel upon whatever new venture he participates in, and contributing little else, until finally his lies begin to catch up with him. McEwan takes a dark, one might say realistic view of the future with regard to climate change, and he compares the inability of university-educated people to keep a "boot room" on a ship in the Arctic organized, to the inability of the world to do anything effective about climate change. It's a valid point. 

I enjoyed this, though I preferred On Chesil Beach.

Sonja H

Sexuell unbefriedigter Physiker stolpert durchs Leben.
Nicht schlecht, aber ziemlich öde. Klappentext ließ auf mehr hoffen.

Melody Izard

Who would have thought that this book about a guy who thinks just because he's a Nobel Prize-winning Physicist he can continue to entice and ensnare and have sex with any number of young women even if he is married to wife number 3 or 4 or whatever the count, is really about intellectual property rights and how that, plus our just general human problems and fuck-ups, keep us from solving our world-wide problems which include, but are not limited to, alternative, clean energy options? (I almost forgot the question mark). But after a wonderful book group discussion I have bought in to this and have rated this book (my least favorite of any Ian McEwan book) 3 stars instead of 2.

Phil James

This gave me everything I could have asked for from a new Ian McEwan, a topical subject,[ global-warming:] and a totally human, messy character making a mess of his life as we make a mess of the planet. 
My criticisms, if any, are very small ones. 
If one thinks of a random number to put in a story the usual choice will be 23, and this happens several times.

Ditipriya Acharya

Maria

Klaus Eck

Joana Sá 

Martin Ackerfors

Michael Springer

Kayla Walters

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 Beard 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.

Gabrielle Griffiths

Josh Clement

Maggie Horikawa

Ben Burns

Rose Stanley

Stephen Schenkenberg

Gwen Chodur

Eleanor 

Grace Emilia Machon

Michael Beard ist a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. A compulsive womaniser, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. But this time it is different: his wife is having the affair, an he is still in love with her.

Amro Gebreel

A best-selling work of wit from the Booker Prize-winning author, Solar brilliantly traces the arc of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist’s ambitions and self-deception. Dr. Michael Beard’s 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 halfheartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. Meanwhile, Michael’s fifth marriage is floundering due to his incessant womanizing. When his professional and personal worlds collide in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself for Michael to extricate himself from his marital problems, reinvigorate his career, and save the world from environmental disaster. But can a man who has made a mess of his life clean up the messes of humanity?

Solar A Novel

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