“‘Sweet, and Sweeter Still’: The Role of Music in Ian McEwan’s Fiction”

In Ian McEwan’s literary production, music features prominently and under different guises: besides authoring two libretti, McEwan often chooses his characters among musicians and composers, and uses music as a powerful metaphor for the exploration of such weighty issues as artistic inspiration and creation, or the relationship between art and the world. This essay first intends to illustrate McEwan’s engagement with music throughout his career by pinpointing some of its key moments; then, attention is specifically devoted to his 2014 novel, The Children Act, where the universal language of music and its capacity to transcend the intrinsic finiteness of individuals and of the world qualify it as an alternative, even privileged, means to tackle the epistemological and ethical issues that lie at the very core of the story.