A New Yorker Essential Read
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker • Vogue • Bookpage
International Bestseller

“Brilliant . . . Nobody is better at writing about entropy and indignity—among other topics—than Ian McEwan. . . . One way to read Lessons is as a self-repudiation of the maneuver at which McEwan has become virtuosic. More authors should repudiate their virtuosity. The results are exciting.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Expansive. . . . Lessons displays both breadth and depth. It ranks among McEwan’s best work.”
—NPR

“A luminous, beautifully written, and gripping book about lives imperfectly lived. . . . Ranging, ambitious, teasingly autobiographical, and unsettling in the manner of his best work, [Lessons is] a story of monstrous behavior set against major tides of the last eighty years. Roland Baines, a kind of spectator to history, is our hero [and] is both haunted by trauma and able to push away from it, toward love, parenthood, forgiveness, grace.”
—Vogue

“Astonishing. . . . McEwan, who is steeped in the sounds and rhythms of English literature, and for whom novels and poems practically assume the importance of characters, has written a masterpiece of a novel that is simultaneously about the business of growing up and getting old, and the business of writing fiction. . . . How does McEwan pull it off? Through the patient accretion of closely observed detail and one beautiful, shimmering sentence after another.”
—USA Today

“[A] generous and humane portrait of individual indecision against the backdrop of history. . . . It’s compassionate and gentle, and so bereft of cynicism it feels almost radical. . . . Lessons is the book it hopes to be: a hymn to the “commonplace and wondrous,” a tale of human grace.”
—The Guardian

“One of [McEwan’s] most ambitious. . . . Not only does Lessons explore the full, strange mix of personal experiences and historical forces that shape a life, but it’s shot through with a rich sense of McEwan taking stock of his own. . . . Lessons triumphantly achieves its primary aim of conveying the ‘commonplace and wondrous’ intertwining of global history and everyday life.”
—The Telegraph (UK)

“A tour de force of breadth. . . . McEwan writes with invigorating alertness about social and political shifts over the past seventy years.”
—The Times (UK)

“A profound demonstration of [McEwan's] remarkable skill. . . . Indeed, even more than McEwan’s previous novels, Lessons is a story that so fully embraces its historical context that it calls into question the synthetic timelessness of much contemporary fiction.”
—The Washington Post

“Insightful . . . Engaging . . . Expansive and unhurried, Lessons explores how one man’s life is shaped by the unpredictable sweep of history.”
—Seattle Times

“Moving and masterful. . . . [Lessons'] psychological astuteness and elegant prose is a thrill to behold.”
—The Independent

“[Lessons] is quietly touching, as is Mr. McEwan’s decision to cede his habitual narrative control to more naturalistic forces. Lessons is more formless than previous books . . . It is also wiser and closer to the bone.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“Ian McEwan is back with the kind of sweeping epic novel to which rightly attaches the word ‘ambitious.’”
—The AV Club

“A work of undeniable majesty. . . . Lessons is a consistently enjoyable read, written . . . with McEwan’s fearsomely intelligent fluency.”
—The Spectator (UK)

"Lessons is an achievement of language but also of ambition: A male writer charts, in consummate detail, the interior world of a male protagonist barely able to keep his chin above a tide of social change.”
—Oprah Daily

“Engaging [and] . . . formally impressive. . . . I’m delighted to have added this thoughtful, touching and historically grounded novel to my bookshelf.”
—Financial Times

“Generous, ambitious. . . . The literary artistry [of Lessons] leaves this reader in awe.”
—Boston Globe

“A storyteller at the peak of his powers. . . . [Lessons] deserves to be near the top of the ‘best books of 2022’ list.”
—Star Tribune

“[Lessons] marks a significant new phase in McEwan’s already astonishingly productive career—and may well be remembered as one of the finest humanist novels of its age.”
—New Statesman

“McEwan returns with his best work since the Booker- and NBCC-winning Atonement . . . Throughout, McEwan poignantly shows how the characters contend with major historical moments while dealing with the ravages of daily life, which is what makes this so affecting. He also employs lyrical but pared-down prose to great effect . . . Once more, the masterly McEwan delights.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Richly observed . . . A tale of aspiration, disappointment, and familial dysfunction spread across a vast historic panorama . . . McEwan’s imagination delivers plenty of family secrets and reflects on ‘so many lessons unlearned’ in a world that’s clearly wobbling off its axis.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Masterful . . . McEwan is a storyteller at the peak of his powers and this deserves to be near the top of the ‘best books of 2022’ list. One of the joys of the novel is the way it weaves history into Roland’s biography as well as the lives of other characters in the book. There are other themes here McEwan explores in depth—from envy to ambition to what truly constitutes a life well-lived—but the pleasure in reading this novel is letting it wash over you.”
—Associated Press

"A luminous, beautifully written, and gripping book about lives imperfectly lived. McEwan’s new novel is ranging, ambitious, teasingly autobiographical, and unsettling in the manner of his best work, a story of monstrous behavior set against major tides of the last 80 years. Roland Baines, a kind of spectator to history, is our hero [and] is both haunted by trauma and able to push away from it, toward love, parenthood, forgiveness, grace.”
—Vogue

“What constitutes a successful life—particularly one damaged by a crime of passion? Ian McEwan’s novel grapples with this question via the story of a troubled single father. Whether describing the day-to-day minutiae, a disturbing affair, or mammoth historical events, McEwan captivates with thoughtful, emotionally honest prose.”
—The Christian Science Monitor