Ian mcewan books in order

Ian McEwan ~  What We Can Know

What We Can Know, the epic new novel from Ian McEwan, will be published on 18 September 2025. 

Ian McEwan says of his new novel: 

"What We Can Know is science fiction without the science. This is a novel about history, and what we can know of it, and of each other. We live our lives between the dead and the yet to be born. Of the dead we know a little, but not as much as we think. About the present, we disagree fiercely. People of the future, of course, are beyond our reckoning, but we’re troubled by what we’ll bequeath them. As they look back at us, what will our descendants think, when they contemplate the diminished world we left them? They might envy us. 

"To catch at these thoughts, I’ve written a novel about a quest, a crime, revenge, fame, a tangled love affair, mental illness, love of nature and poetry, and how, through all natural and self-inflicted catastrophes, we have the knack of surviving somehow. In our times, we know more about the world than we ever did, and such knowledge will be hard
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Ian McEwan

British novelist and screenwriter (born 1948)

Ian Russell McEwanCH CBE FRSA FRSL (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 19 in its list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture".^[1]

McEwan began his career writing sparse, Gothic short stories. His first two novels, The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981), earned him the nickname "Ian Macabre". These were followed by three novels of some success in the 1980s and early 1990s. His novel Enduring Love was adapted into a film of the same name. He won the Booker Prize with Amsterdam (1998). His next novel, Atonement, garnered acclaim and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film featuring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. His later novels have included The Children Act, Nutshell, and Machines Like Me. He was awarded the 1999 Shakespeare Prize, and the 2011 Jerusalem Prize.

Early life and educati

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McEwan, Ian

Childhood and education
Ian Russell McEwan was born on 21st June 1948 in Hampshire to parents Rose and David. McEwan had a somewhat turbulent childhood due to his father’s posting as an officer in the British Army, which often required the family to frequently move from country to country. In 1959, McEwan was sent to Woolverstone Hall, a boarding school located in Sussex, and he remained in Sussex for his undergraduate education. His time there influenced his later novel writing, with his 2012 spy romance novel, Sweet Tooth, being partly set at the University of Sussex. In 1970, following his undergraduate studies, McEwan attended the University of East Anglia, and while studying for his MA there met Penny Allen, whom he would later marry and have two sons with. The two later divorced, and McEwan married Annalena McAfee, with whom he remains today.

Becoming a novelist
During his MA, McEwan began experimenting with short-story writing. In 1972, short stories including ‘Conversation with a Cupboard Man’ and ‘Homemade’ were published in monthly literary magazi