Exercises

"Exercises" – an emotional psychological drama for leisurely reading with elements of the author's own biography. 

In the mid-20th century, when the world is still counting the cost of World War II, the life of eleven-year-old Roland Baines turns upside down. 

A military father takes him from Libya and enrolls him in an English boarding school, where his vulnerability attracts a young piano teacher, Miriam Cornell. 

The irrational and tragic first love will become a red thread throughout the boy's life. 

Much later, when Roland's wife disappears, leaving him alone with their young son, he will search for answers both in his youth and in the history of his family. 

Ian McEwan describes the chronicle of pivotal events in European history from the 20th to the 21st century through the lens of Roland's life, a typical representative of his generation.