Lessons -- Ian McEwan

<b><i>NEW YORK TIMES </i>BEST SELLER - A <i>NEW YORKER </i>ESSENTIAL READ - From the best-selling author of <i>Atonement </i>and <i>Saturday </i>comes the epic and intimate story of one man's life across generations and historical upheavals. From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic, Roland Baines sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it.</b> <p/> <b>A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: <i> Vogue <b><i>-</i></b> The New Yorker </i> <p/>"Masterful.... McEwan is a storyteller at the peak of his powers.... One of the joys of the novel is the way it weaves history into Roland's biography.... The pleasure in reading this novel is letting it wash over you." --<i>Associated Press</i> </b> <p/>When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. <p/>Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life. <p/>Haunted by lost opportunities, R