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Ian McEwan is an English novelist known for his macabre subject matter and suspenseful pace. He has won awards for his novels and written screenplays for film and television. McEwan studied English literature and was the first graduate of the creative writing course at the University of East Anglia. His work deals with disturbing topics but is deeply moving.
Ian McEwan is an English novelist and short story writer known for the often macabre subject matter and suspenseful pace of his work. While his initial gruesome fiction earned him the nickname “Ian Macabre,” his novels have become increasingly sophisticated and acclaimed throughout his career. His first published work, a collection of short stories called First Love, Last Rites (1975), earned McEwan the Somerset Maugham Award. McEwan has also won awards for his novels The Child in Time (1987), Amsterdam (1998), Saturday (2005) and Atonement. The last of these, which many consider his masterpiece, won four separate awards and appeared on TIME magazine’s 100 Greatest Novels list.
In addition to his books, McEwan has written screenplays for film and television, including The Ploughman’s Lunch (1985). Four of McEwan’s novels have been adapted for the screen, along with two of his short stories, and a film version of Atonement is slated for release in 2007.
Ian McEwan was born in Aldershot, England on June 21, 1948. As his father was an army officer, he spent much of his childhood abroad in Germany, North Africa and East Asia. Ian McEwan studied English literature at the University of Sussex and the University of East Anglia. At the University of East Anglia, he was the first graduate of their creative writing course, taught by novelist Malcolm Bradbury. In 1997, McEwan married Annalena McAfee, author of many children’s books and editor of the Guardian Review. McEwan has two grown children from a previous marriage to Penny Allen.
In 2006, controversy erupted over McEwan’s use of passages from Lucilla Andrews’ No Time for Romance in her novel Atonement. Some critics have accused it of plagiarism, while others, including fellow novelist Thomas Pynchon, have defended it. In response, McEwan noted that he acknowledged Andrews as an inspiration in her author’s note to her at the end of the novel, but some still believe she exceeded reasonable standards of “borrowing.”
In his novels, McEwan dealt with such disturbing topics as incest, murder, kidnapping, de Clerambault syndrome, a hostage situation and various mental disorders. Her work is often uncomfortable for the reader but also deeply moving. His later novels are more character-driven, and McEwan writes cogently about the thoughts and motivations of a range of character types.
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