One of the perks of being a bookseller is that you’re able to read books long before they are published. I read Lessons back in June and couldn’t stop telling people about it. Often the response I received was along the lines of, ‘I used to read McEwan but the last books haven’t done it for me’. Certainly, people were divided about Machines Like Me but I thought it adventurous, bold. Other people argue that writers produce their best work towards the middle of their career. I’ve read most of McEwan’s books but at the age of 74, he has, with Lessons, produced what I think is the highlight of his career.

It is the story of one man, Roland Baines, an unremarkable, remarkable man. Baines has some things in common with McEwan: he was born in 1948; his father was a working-class man who rose up through the ranks of the army; his mother was overly protective and hid a secret; and he attended an unconventional boarding school. At this point Ian’s and Roland’s lives start to diverge. Roland is musically and emotionally precocious and is seduced by his piano teacher. The teenage Roland revels in the desire of his teacher, but the relationship also ultimately unhinges him and leads him to abandon both the relationship and a sense of direction.

Roland’s life becomes emotionally and physically nomadic, without commitment. A marriage to a German-English woman provides some respite until she leaves both Roland and their small child, disappearing from their lives. Somehow Roland navigates this to become a good father and a good man; later in life he confronts both his seductress and his wife, who has become one of Germany’s most esteemed writers, and finds some sense of peace and consolation.

I haven’t read anything that moved or intrigued me like this in a long time.