A chat with Ian McEwan

Author of such renowned novels as Amsterdam (winner of the prestigious Booker Prize in 1998) and Atonement, adapted for the big screen in 2007 by Joe Wright and probably his most widely read novel, Ian McEwan is one of the most important British writers of his generation.

The characters in his stories have a psychological complexity that is uncompromisingly transmitted through descriptions of their actions. Whether it concerns the process of estrangement and divorce (Chesil Beach) or the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Centre (Saturday), his sparkling, unadorned style is characterised by unexpected plot twists that grasp the readers’ attention.

With the collaboration of publishers Empuriés and Anagrama, McEwan will visit the Biblioteca Jaume Fuster on the 29th of October for a conversation with Antonio Lozano about his writing and, more specifically, about his latest novel, Sweet Tooth.

Set in England in the 70s at the height of the Cold War, the novel tells the story of Serena Frames, a young graduate in mathematics from Cambridge University and assiduous reader who enters the British secret service, MI5, with a mission to recruit talented writers for the purposes of producing anti-communist propaganda. The mission wavers when Serena falls in love with a young writer, Tom Haley, whose secret life becomes increasingly difficult to hide.