“I think when a close friend dies the first thing you confront is the love.”

In this episode, Ian McEwan talks about how this slow, contemplative second movement of J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins — in which the instruments answer one another and play in unison like a pair of lovers — walked him through a teenage “eruption of self-awareness” and longing, and later in life helped him process the loss of a beloved friend.

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Ian McEwan is a British author. His works include Atonement and the Booker Prize-winning Amsterdam.

Did you like the track Ian chose? Listen to the music in full:

Concerto for Two Violins by J.S. Bach