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Ian McEwan

イアン・ラッセル・マキューアン

Ian Russell McEwan

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1948-06-21 （Aldershot, Hampshire, England）
Nationality
British
Languages
English
Religion
Atheism
Residence History
East Asia (childhood) → Germany (childhood) → North Africa (including Libya, childhood) → London (current residence)

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Screenwriter
Active Years
1975-
Affiliations
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Society of Authors, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Memberships
Royal Society of Literature (Fellow), Royal Society of Arts (Fellow), Society of Authors (Fellow), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellow)
Influenced By
John Updike, Martin Amis, Kazuo Ishiguro
Influenced
Contemporary novelists such as Zadie Smith, 21st-century English-language writers (influenced in use of psychological tension and moral themes)
Nominations
Booker Prize (1981, The Comfort of Strangers, shortlisted), Booker Prize (1992, Black Dogs, shortlisted), Booker Prize (2001, Atonement, shortlisted), Booker Prize (2005, Saturday, longlisted), Booker Prize (2007, On Chesil Beach, shortlisted)

Education

Woolverstone Hall School
Period: 1950s–1960s（学年不詳）
Country: England
Attended as a boarding pupil
University of Sussex
English Literature
Degree: BA
Period: 1967–1970
Year of Graduation: 1970
Country: England
Received a degree in English literature
University of East Anglia
Literature (MA)
Degree: MA
Period: 1970年代初期
Year of Graduation: 1972
Country: England
Completed an MA in literature with option to submit creative writing

Awards

Somerset Maugham Award
1976
Work: First Love, Last Rites (short stories)
Organization: Somerset Maugham Award committee
Result: winner
Whitbread (Costa) Novel Award
1987
Work: The Child in Time
Organization: Whitbread/Costa Awards
Result: winner
Booker Prize
1998
Work: Amsterdam
Organization: The Booker Prize
Result: winner
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
2005
Work: Saturday
Organization: James Tait Black Memorial Prize committee
Result: winner
Shakespeare Prize
1999
Organization: Alfred Toepfer Foundation
Result: awardee
Jerusalem Prize
2011
Organization: Jerusalem International Book Fair
Result: awardee
Goethe Medal
2020
Organization: Goethe-Institut
Result: awardee
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
2000
Organization: The Crown (New Year Honours)
Result: honor
Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH)
2023
Organization: The Crown (Birthday Honours)
Result: honor
Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award
2010
Organization: Tulsa Library Trust
Result: awardee
Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement
2006
Organization: Kenyon Review
Result: awardee
Bauer-Incroci di civiltà Prize
2018
Organization: Venice cultural organisers
Result: awardee
Golden Plate Award
2019
Organization: American Academy of Achievement
Result: awardee

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

First Love, Last Rites

1975 Short stories / Gothic

A debut short story collection showcasing his early unsettling, gothic themes.

GothicPsychological tensionYouth, sexuality, loss

The Cement Garden

1978 Novel / Gothic

A disturbing novel about a family; controversial on publication and later adapted into a film.

Family disintegrationMoral ambiguity
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Cement Garden (film) / Andrew Birkin (1993)

Amsterdam

1998 Novel

A short novel of black humour and moral dilemma. Winner of the Booker Prize in 1998.

MoralityRevengeMedia and private life

Atonement

2001 Historical novel / Literary fiction

A novel about memory, guilt and historical trauma. Adapted into a widely acclaimed film.

MemoryGuiltHistory and narrative
Adaptations
  • [Film] Atonement (film) / Joe Wright (2007)

Enduring Love

1997 Novel / Psychological thriller

A psychological drama about a science writer and an obsessive stalker. Film adaptation released in 2004.

ObsessionReason versus emotion
Adaptations
  • [Film] Enduring Love (film) / Roger Michell (2004)

Machines Like Me

2019 Alternate history / Science fiction

A novel that explores artificial intelligence and alternate history, questioning ethics and humanity.

Artificial intelligenceEthicsHuman nature

Bibliography

  • The Cement Garden (1978)
  • The Comfort of Strangers (1981)
  • The Child in Time (1987)
  • The Innocent (1990)
  • Black Dogs (1992)
  • Enduring Love (1997)
  • Amsterdam (1998)
  • Atonement (2001)
  • Saturday (2005)
  • On Chesil Beach (2007)
  • Solar (2010)
  • Sweet Tooth (2012)
  • The Children Act (2014)
  • Nutshell (2016)
  • Machines Like Me (2019)
  • The Cockroach (2019, novella)
  • Lessons (2022)
  • What We Can Know (2025)

Adaptations

  • Atonement (film, 2007)
  • Enduring Love (film, 2004)
  • On Chesil Beach (film, 2017)
  • The Cement Garden (film, 1993)

Translations of Works

  • Atonement (Japanese translation)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Precise, controlled proseEmphasis on psychological tensionIncorporation of scientific and technical themes
Recurring Motifs
Guilt and atonementMemory and misperceptionConsequences of small personal choices

Legacy

Ian McEwan is regarded as one of the leading British novelists from the late 20th to the 21st century. Known for precise prose and explorations of moral and psychological themes, he has received multiple major literary prizes and honours.

Academic Societies

  • Royal Society of Literature
  • Royal Society of Arts

Archives

  • Harry Ransom Center (University of Texas) holds his literary archives

In Popular Culture

  • The film adaptation of Atonement gained worldwide attention, starring Keira Knightley

Quotes

  • There are ways in which art can have a longer reach than politics. For me the emblem in this respect is Daniel Barenboim's West‑Eastern Divan Orchestra.
    Source: Jerusalem Prize acceptance speech (2011) (2011)

Trivia

  • His early dark works earned him the nickname "Ian Macabre."
  • In 2006–2007 he faced controversy over passages in Atonement resembling an earlier memoir; he acknowledged using the source but denied plagiarism.
  • In 2014 the Harry Ransom Center purchased his literary papers for about $2 million.