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  • Solar

  • Written by: Ian McEwan
  • Narrated by: Roger Allam
  • Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)

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Solar cover art

Solar

Written by: Ian McEwan
Narrated by: Roger Allam
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Publisher's 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
Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction
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What the critics say

'[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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Profile Image for Rachel

Roger Allum is one of the best narrators on Audible

So enjoyed this. Hilariously funny in parts. But also quite depressing. A good demonstration of why the planet could be doomed. We are too deeply concerned with our individual insignificant troubles to do much about the most pressing problem that human beings face: climate change.
Also brilliantly narrated.

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Profile Image for Sharron padden

Solar

A very apt story for the times. Interesting and concerning. I enjoyed this story very much.

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