A vivid and detailed exploration of childhood trauma and tumultuous world events, Lessons, Ian McEwan’s 17th novel, spans the life of Roland Baines, who comes from an emotionally withdrawn army family and is sent to boarding school at the age of 11. There he meets a strict piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, who, when Roland hits a wrong note, reaches under his shorts and pinches his leg. Three years later, Miriam lures the 14-year-old Roland into a sexual relationship that ends up derailing his life. He tries and mostly fails at various professions, including photographer, poet, tennis coach and hotel pianist, gets married and has a baby. But after his German-born wife decides that motherhood is not part of her destiny, he is left to raise their son alone.
The book goes on to track Roland into old age, with much of his life mirroring the author’s own (including a childhood in Libya and the discovery of a brother who was adopted at birth) and pausing at momentous historical moments, from the Cuban missile crisis and the fall of the Berlin Wall to Chornobyl, 9/11 and the Covid pandemic.
The actor and director Simon McBurney is the narrator; his Roland is companionable and meditative, acknowledging the forces that have led to where he is without being sunk by them. Interweaving the personal and political, Lessons is about chance, memory and the roads not taken. As Roland drifts through life, buffeted by events big and small, he comes to understand that “his case [is] not special – all fates are similarly constituted”.
• Lessons by Ian McEwan is available from Penguin Audio, 17hr 34min
Further listening
Romantic Comedy
Curtis Sittenfield, Penguin Audio, 9hr 5min
A sharp and funny romcom from the Rodham author revolving around a TV scriptwriter and a pop star whom she believes to be out of her league. Read by Kristen Sieh.
The Hard Crowd
Rachel Kushner, Penguin Audio, 7hr 52min
This collection of autobiographical essays, variously recalls a motorcycle accident, a stay at a Palestinian refugee camp and an encounter with a Rolling Stone, narrated by the author.
