Ian McEwan to Publish First Full-Length Nonfiction Book, 'Between Books'

Ian McEwan, long regarded as one of the world's leading novelists, is set to release his first full-length work of nonfiction. Alfred A. Knopf announced Wednesday that "Between Books," a collection of his essays and speeches, will be published next spring, on May 25.

The book gathers occasional pieces written across his career, spanning what the publisher describes as intimate personal recollection and bold intellectual enquiry. It includes material that has appeared previously alongside writing that has never been published, and McEwan has contributed a new introduction.

Knopf Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jordan Pavlin said the collection offers an intimate record of a great mind engaging with the contours of his own life and with the themes and questions that shape his fiction, including the nature of truth and love, the human hunger for meaning and knowledge, and the mysteries of the soul.

McEwan, 78, said the project began as a consideration of a ragbag of disparate pieces and became, in his hope, an emotional and intellectual journey.

The British author is known for novels including "Atonement," "The Innocent" and "Amsterdam," which won the Booker Prize. In 2019 he released a brief work of nonfiction titled "Science." "Between Books" marks his first full-length foray into the form.