ALFRED A. KNOPF CANADA TO PUBLISH A NEW NOVEL FROM IAN McEWAN THIS FALL

TORONTO, Jan. 19, 2022 /CNW/ - Ian McEwan, one of our foremost storytellers, returns this fall with an ambitious, mesmerising new novel. To be published simultaneously in the UK, US and in Canada on 13^th September 2022, LESSONS is a powerful meditation on history and humanity told through the prism of one man's lifetime.

Spanning the last seventy years, from the end of the Second World War to the Suez and Cuban Missile Crises, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic and climate change, McEwan's protagonist, Roland, rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it. Haunted by lost opportunities, he seeks solace through every possible means – music, literature, family and friends, sex, politics and love. 

His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? What does parenthood, that 'double helix of labour and love', teach us about ourselves? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?

Martha Kanya-Forstner, publisher of Knopf Canada, says, "Louise Dennys, the founder of Knopf Canada, first published Ian McEwan in 1992. Today, I share her delight in celebrating a publishing relationship of thirty years with the announcement of LESSONS. It is a thrilling book - a true epic from a literary giant, remarkable for its intimacy, its compassion and tenderness. Throughout the novel there are moments of breathtaking surprise and exquisite peace, moments of such lasting beauty that somehow my own world felt more alive in their wake. In LESSONS, McEwan reminds us of the novel's unique power to illuminate the human condition, to deepen our understanding of who we are in relation to each other, and to our individual and collective pasts. "

ABOUT IAN McEWAN

IAN McEWAN is the critically acclaimed author of seventeen books. His first published work, a collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award; The Cement Garden; Enduring Love; Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize; Atonement; Saturday; On Chesil Beach; Solar; Sweet Tooth; The Children Act; Nutshell; and Machines Like Me, which was a number-one bestseller. Atonement, Enduring Love, The Children Act and On Chesil Beach have all been adapted for the big screen.

ABOUT KNOPF CANADA

In 2022, Knopf Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada, celebrates thirty years of publishing great writers and award-winning books. Knopf Canada's Canadian and international authors include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dionne Brand, Rawi Hage, Tom Hanks, Kate Harris, Sheila Heti, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Kazuo Ishiguro, Naomi Klein, Vincent Lam, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Yann Martel, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison, Maggie O'Farrell, Eden Robinson, Sally Rooney, Salman Rushdie, Shyam Selvadurai, Patti Smith, Douglas Stuart, Madeleine Thien, Miriam Toews, John Vaillant, Joshua Whitehead, Britt Wray and many more.

SOURCE Knopf Canada

Scott Sellers, [email protected], [phone]