AGE: 59
OCCUPATION: Novelist
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0
PRO: After a plagiarism "scandal" many felt was trumped up (authors from Updike to Pynchon rushed to his defense), McEwan bounced back with a gentle, simple tale of sexual awakening before the sexual revolution, On Chesil Beach (short-listed for the Booker Prize). And watching the film version of Atonement grab BAFTAs and Oscar nominations probably went a long way to salve his wounds.
CON: No Oscar wins for Atonement. And another author came forward, claiming McEwan used material (though not her phraseology) in Chesil.