Ian McEwan’s 'ragbag' of essays becomes 'Between Books,' a new nonfiction journey


By AGENCY
McEwan said he began the book with a collection of unrelated ideas, which eventually came together as what he hopes will be both an emotional and intellectual journey. Photo: AP

After a decades-long run as one of the world's most acclaimed novelists, Ian McEwan has compiled his occasional nonfiction into a full-length book.

McEwan's essay and speech collection Between Books will be published next spring, May 25, Alfred A. Knopf announced on Wednesday. It is the first full-length work of nonfiction by the author of Atonement, The Innocent, the Booker Prize -winning Amsterdam and many other novels. (In 2019, the British author released a brief work of nonfiction, Science.)

Between Books includes everything from "intimate personal recollection to bold intellectual enquiry,” according to Knopf. McEwan has written a new introduction for Between Books, which includes material both published before and never published before.

"Between Books is an intimate record of a great mind wrestling with the contours of his own life and all the themes and questions that inform his masterworks: the nature of truth and love, the human hunger for meaning and knowledge, the mysteries of the soul,” said Knopf Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jordan Pavlin in a statement.

McEwan, 78, said in a statement that for his upcoming book he "started out contemplating a ragbag of disparate pieces and ended up with what I hope is an emotional and intellectual journey.” - AP

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