Michael Beard is a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. A compulsive womaniser, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. But this time it is different: his wife is having the affair, and he is still in love with her. When Beard's professional and personal worlds collide in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and save the world from environmental disaster.

Ian McEwan is the critically acclaimed author of seventeen books. His first published work, a collection of short stories,First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His novels includeThe Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award;The Cement Garden;Enduring Love;Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize;Atonement;Saturday;On Chesil Beach;Solar;Sweet Tooth;The Children Act; andNutshell, which was a Number One bestseller.AtonementandEnduring Lovehave both been turned into award-winning films,The Children ActandOn Chesil Beachare in production and set for release this year, and filming is currently underway for a BBC TV adaptation ofThe Child in Time.

An engrossing, satirical and very funny novel on climate change - an international bestseller.