Celebrated author Ian McEwan has revealed some of the plot of his next novel, The Guardian reported today.

McEwan told reporters that it centers around a physicist protaganist named Michael Beard who’s very much an anti-hero – while being brilliant and having won the Nobel Prize, he is nevertheless scuzzy to women, dishonest, and not very likeable. Beard faces challenges when the media swarms and attacks him over a comment he makes suggesting, essentially, that men are inherently smarter than women, and denying there is any gender discrimination in his own field.

The media attacks over a comment echo themes in mcEwan’s own life as well – both he and fellow author and friend Martin Amis have come under fire in the past for remarks made about the Islam nation.

The new novel, likely to be called Solar is about two thirds finished and expected to be published in 2010.

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