Ian McEwan biography

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan Biography

Ian McEwan's works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim. He won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976 for his first collection of short stories First Love, Last Rites; the Whitbread Novel Award (1987) and the Prix Fémina Etranger (1993) for The Child in Time; and Germany's Shakespeare Prize in 1999. He has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction numerous times, winning the award for Amsterdam in 1998. His novel Atonement received the WH Smith Literary Award (2002), National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award (2003), Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction (2003), and the Santiago Prize for the European Novel (2004). Atonement was also made into an Oscar-winning film.

In 2006, Ian McEwan won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Saturday and his novel On Chesil Beach was named Galaxy Book of the Year at the 2008 British Book Awards where McEwan was also named Reader's Digest Author of the Year. Solar won The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction in 2010 and Sweet Tooth won the Paddy Power Political Fiction Book of the Year award in 2012. Ian McEwan was awarded a CBE in 2000. In 2014 he was awarded the Bodleian Medal.

McEwan is published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Nan A. Talese/Doubleday in the US.

Ian McEwan's website

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Interview

In a number of different interviews, both text and video, Ian McEwan talks about his favorite book to film adaptations, on writing screenplays, on adapting his novels to film, and the thrill of winning the 1998 Booker Prize for Amsterdam.

Ian McEwan: On His Favorite Book to Film Adaptations


Ian McEwan: On Writing Screenplays


Ian McEwan: On Adapting His Novels to Film


The three videos above were recorded in 2011


Ian McEwan talks about his books and the thrill of winning the 1998 Booker Prize for Amsterdam

First, congratulations on the Booker Prize. How does it feel? What does it mean to you?

It does have an extraordinary power, this prize. I think my experience must be just the same as more or less everyone else's who has won. I have a literary following and people have known about my books for years, but now the potential readership suddenly leaps. The Booker somehow has caught everyone's imagination, and you find that worldwide there's an interest in your writing from people who otherwise wouldn't be reading it. That's the overwhelming difference.

Americans don't really have a prize that's equivalent to the Booker, in terms of furor and public interest. Can you enlighten us about the meaning of the Prize in Britain?

I think a series of accidents have made the Booker very powerful here. The fact that it has a shortlist that is announced and left in place for about a month allows ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Ian McEwan at BookBrowse
Lessons jacket Machines Like Me jacket Nutshell jacket The Children Act jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Ian McEwan but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Luke Allnutt

    Luke Allnutt

    Born in the U.K, Luke Allnutt is a writer and journalist based in the Czech Republic. He is married and has two young boys. (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Children Act

    Try:
    We Own the Sky
    by Luke Allnutt

  • Martin Amis

    Martin Amis

    Martin Amis is the son of another famous British novelist, Kingsley Amis, and although he credits his initial welcome into the publishing world to his father's influence, much has been written about this father and son ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    On Chesil Beach

    Try:
    House of Meetings
    by Martin Amis

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