Published in 2010, Solar, Ian McEwan’s eleventh novel, is a satire exploring contemporary debates about climate change. The environmental crisis is a subject with which the author has engaged consistently since the late 1990s (Griggs) and to which he “would like to return” as he noted in 2019 (“Ian”). McEwan’s knowledge and his long engagement with science is evident in Solar, a work which exhibits “impressive attentiveness to technological detail and scientific language” (Horton).

As in novels like Saturday (2005), Sweet Tooth (2012), and The Children Act (2014), works that required meticulous study as they focus on protagonists with …

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Citation: Logotheti, Anastasia. "Solar". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2020 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=29661, accessed 25 November 2024.]

29661 Solar 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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