Solar

Michael Beard is in his late fifties; bald, overweight, unprepossessing a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. An inveterate philanderer, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. But this time it is different- she is having the affair, and he is still in love with her. When Beard s professional and personal worlds are entwined in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself, a chance for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster. With a global scope, SOLAR is a comedy dealing directly with the crises of today. A story of one man s ambitions and self-deceptions, it is a startling and stylish new departure in the work of one of the world s great writers.