Order of Book Series
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Ian McEwan Books in Order

Ian McEwan has written 33 books, published between 1975 and 2025. The first book is First Love, Last Rites (1975) and the newest is What We Can Know (2025). Publication order is the reading order below.

Books
33
Published
1975–2025
Confirmed
24 of 33 titles
Pages on record
5,199 in 26 of 33 books
Reading time
87–130 hours

Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 5,199 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 26 of 33 titles with a page count on record.

See all 33 books in order Printable Ian McEwan checklist
Photo of Ian McEwan, author of the Compass of the Moon and Stars series

Ian McEwan writes British literary fiction, alongside drama, librettos and short stories. Thirty-nine catalogued titles start with the story collection First Love, Last Rites (1975) and run through The Cement Garden (1978), In Between the Sheets (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981) as far as 2025. England, man-woman relationships and social life recur as subjects, at a median length of 193 pages.

McEwan's novels explore morality and human nature. His work has won the Booker Prize.

How many Ian McEwan books are there?

Ian McEwan has 33 books, released between 1975 and 2025. 1 of them belong to the Compass of the Moon and Stars series.

Ian McEwan Books in Publication Order

The table lists all 33 Ian McEwan books in the order they were released, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.

  1. Cover of First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan (1975)
  2. Cover of The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan (1978)
  3. Cover of In Between the Sheets by Ian McEwan (1978)
  4. Cover of The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan (1981)
  5. Cover of The Imitation Game: Three Plays for Television by Ian McEwan (1981)
  6. Cover of Or Shall We Die? by Ian McEwan (1983)
  7. Cover of The Ploughman's Lunch by Ian McEwan, book 1 of the Standalone Plays series (1985)
  8. Cover of The Child in Time by Ian McEwan (1987)
  9. Cover of A Move Abroad by Ian McEwan (1989)
  10. Cover of The Innocent by Ian McEwan (1990)
  11. Cover of Black Dogs by Ian McEwan (1992)
  12. Cover of The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan (1994)
  13. Cover of Enduring Love by Ian McEwan (1997)
  14. Cover of Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (1998)
  15. Cover of Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001)
  16. Cover of Saturday by Ian McEwan (2005)
  17. Cover of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (2007)
  18. Cover of For You by Ian McEwan (2008)
  19. Cover of Conversations with Ian McEwan by Ian McEwan (2010)
  20. Cover of Solar by Ian McEwan (2010)
  21. Cover of The Children Act by Ian McEwan (2014)
  22. Cover of My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan (2016)
  23. Cover of Nutshell by Ian McEwan (2016)
  24. Cover of The Cockroach by Ian McEwan (2019)
  1. 1
    First Love, Last Rites1975 · 165 pages · confirmed 2/4
    1975165
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  2. 2
    The Cement Garden1978 · confirmed 2/4
    1978–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  3. 3
    In Between the Sheets1978 · 153 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1978153
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  4. 4
    The Comfort of Strangers1981 · 127 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1981127
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  5. 5
    The Imitation Game: Three Plays for Television1981 · 144 pages · confirmed 2/4
    1981144
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  6. 6
    Or Shall We Die?1983 · 32 pages · confirmed 3/4
    198332
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  7. 7
    The Ploughman's LunchStandalone Plays #11985 · 34 pages · confirmed 3/4
    198534
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  8. 8
    The Child in Time1987 · 272 pages · confirmed 2/4
    1987272
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  9. 9
    SoursweetStandalone Plays #21989 · 95 pages · confirmed 3/4
    198995
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  10. 10
    A Move Abroad1989 · 144 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1989144
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  11. 11
    The Innocent1990 · 270 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1990270
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  12. 12
    Black Dogs1992 · 149 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1992149
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  13. 13
    The Daydreamer1994 · 160 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1994160
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  14. 14
    The Short Stories1995 · 256 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1995256
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  15. 15
    Enduring Love1997 · confirmed 3/4
    1997–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  16. 16
    Amsterdam1998 · 193 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1998193
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  17. 17
    Atonement2001 · 480 pages · confirmed 2/4
    2001480
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  18. 18
    Saturday2005 · 304 pages · confirmed 2/4
    2005304
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  19. 19
    On Chesil Beach2007 · 224 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2007224
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  20. 20
    For You2008 · 68 pages · confirmed 3/4
    200868
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  21. 21
    Conversations with Ian McEwan2010 · 212 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2010212
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  22. 22
    Solar2010 · 332 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2010332
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  23. 23
    Sweet Tooth2012 · 378 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2012378
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  24. 24
    The Children Act2014 · 221 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2014221
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  25. 25
    My Purple Scented Novel2016 · confirmed 3/4
    2016–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  26. 26
    Nutshell2016 · 197 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2016197
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  27. 27
    Summary of The Children Act2016 · confirmed 1/4
    2016–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  28. 28
    The Cockroach2019 · 112 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2019112
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  29. 29
    Science2019 · 144 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2019144
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  30. 30
    Machines Like Me2019 · 333 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2019333
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  31. 31
    Lessons2022 · confirmed 3/4
    2022–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  32. 32
    The Compass of the Moon and StarsCompass of the Moon and Stars #12024 · confirmed 2/4
    2024–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  33. 33
    What We Can Know2025 · confirmed 2/4
    2025–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK

Ian McEwan books grouped by series

Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.

Standalone Plays

2 books

2 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.

Compass of the Moon and Stars in order

1 book
  1. 1. The Compass of the Moon and Stars

Standalone books

30 books

30 Ian McEwan titles here are not listed as part of any series.

Ian McEwan Books in Chronological Order

By publication date, the Ian McEwan books run from First Love, Last Rites (1975) to What We Can Know (2025), the sequence in the table above. No separate story order is recorded for Ian McEwan in the book listings this catalogue merges, so publication order is the only order on record.

Do you have to read Ian McEwan books in order?

You only need to read Ian McEwan books in order within the Compass of the Moon and Stars series, which holds 1 of the 33 Ian McEwan books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.

Where to start with Ian McEwan

Start with First Love, Last Rites (1975), the earliest published title.

What is the newest Ian McEwan book?

What We Can Know (2025) is the newest Ian McEwan book released so far.

Is there a new Ian McEwan book coming?

No next Ian McEwan book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.

Awards Ian McEwan has won

Wikidata records 11 awards and 7 nominations for Ian McEwan. The most recent 12 are listed here. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given.

  • Jean Monnet Prize2024Won
  • Bodley Medal2014Won
  • Jerusalem Prize2011Won
  • Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize2010Won
  • Helmerich Award2010Won
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize2005Won
  • National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction2002Wonfor Atonement
  • Shakespeare Prize1999Won
  • Booker Prize1998Wonfor Amsterdam
  • Prix Femina étranger1993Won
  • Somerset Maugham Award1976Won
  • Booker Prize2007Shortlistedfor On Chesil Beach

Ian McEwan at a glance

Still publishing
Ian McEwan published a book as recently as 2025.
Release pace
Ian McEwan books have appeared about one every 2 years on average.
Length
5,199 pages across the 26 of 33 books with a recorded length, a median of 179 pages each.
Busiest decade
Most Ian McEwan books, 10 of 33, were published in the 2010s.

What the Ian McEwan books are about

29 of the 33 Ian McEwan books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: drama is tagged on 3 of 29. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.