Listen to a sample
Solar
- Author
- Ian McEwan
- Narrator
- Roger Allam
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 18 March 2010
- Run Time
- 11 hours 50 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Satirical fiction and parodies, Narrative theme: environmental issues / the natural world, Narrative theme: love / relationships, Climate change, Narrative theme: interior life / psychological fiction
- Rating
- 5.0 (1 review)
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What to expect
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.
Critics Review
-
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
User Reviews
Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
-
5.0 5.0
A amusing book with an almost believable scientific theme.
PBee 2026-06-14
Details
- Author
- Ian McEwan
- Narrator
- Roger Allam
- Duration
- 11 hours 50 minutes
- Release Date
- 18 March 2010
- ISBN
- 9781407054230
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Satirical fiction and parodies, Narrative theme: environmental issues / the natural world, Narrative theme: love / relationships, Climate change, Narrative theme: interior life / psychological fiction
- Rating
- 5.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 5.0(1 review)
Synopsis
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.
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