My thanks to NetGalley and Vintage publishing for the eARC. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to read this book before its publication.

As ever, McEwan’s prose is smooth and enjoyable to read throughout, however, I did find part one dragged a little for me.

The themes of this book are made clear from the very start. The main ones being whether biographies/historical accounts of people are a true reflection of the individual (this theme giving rise to the title of the book) and warning of impending climate and nuclear disasters ahead. Although the future setting is 100 years in the future from now, the questions it raises are very current.

I love dystopian fiction, particularly related to climate change as it reflects worries I have about the future. I was therefore very interested in understanding and learning more about the future world presented in this book, but the delivery of this world building felt awkward. Most of the information is delivered through long lists of climate or political events, or perhaps disasters would be a better word, that detail how this future world came to be rather than allowing the reader to discovery these pieces gradually. This is largely because the narrator of part one, Tom Metcalfe, is isolated (and thus experience things that would drip-feed us this information more naturally) and a historian, so these lists are perhaps the only way he would present these details to us. I suppose this is just not my favourite method of building a world. Regardless, I was interested to read about the predictions McEwan made about the direction our world could take in the near future. There was a lot to think about here and it made me freshly motivated to try to prevent this future. I will say that reading about these predictions made me feel rather bleak because of how possible it all seems. The low mood it provoked likely contributed to why I felt the first part of the book felt slower.

Aside from the rather on-the-nose dumps of information, I enjoyed learning about the academic landscape of this future setting (which was conveyed through following Tom’s daily life which was a much more compelling thing to follow). Tom was an interesting and flawed character. I felt his obsession with the past reflected the reader’s interest in the future. Just as Tom looked at the bridge where people of the past could not cross into his world, I felt like I was on the other side of that bridge trying to look across at him. But I didn’t find myself fully invested in his life, or that of his colleague and lover Rose.

Even if the writing/characters in the first section was not my favourite, thinking about the themes it explored while reading kept me engaged. I journal semi-regularly, and often struggle to decide what to write about as I am so aware of all the information I would miss. Even when you try to detail everything you remember about an event, there will be information you do not correctly recall / miss out (intentionally or otherwise). Often I feel like the very act of committing a memory to the page is a lie - nothing can capture everything - and I liked how this book looked at that idea.

Part two (which begins at ~60%) felt stronger, in my opinion, and I struggled to put the book down once I reached it. I really liked following Vivien and enjoyed picking out the differences between her account and what Tom believed he knew about the same period of her life. *Big spoilers ahead! Please don’t view if you want to read this book.* <spoiler>I felt rather gratified when my suspicion that she murdered Percy was confirmed (I was immediately suspicious when I read in part one that “fell down the stairs”, who actually falls down stairs by accident in a novel?) but I was pleased to be surprised about the details of how this happened.

To describe the murder of Percy, or any of the other information we discover about Vivien, as twists doesn’t quite feel right (although I admittedly don’t know how else to describe them). I found the mood McEwan is able to provoke in the reader in part one, which act in concert with the hints he drops, signal rather clearly about what is to come. And I mean that in the best way! The best “twists” are those which you can see coming, in my opinion, as I think it feels all the more satisfying to pick up on hints/moods and then see the “reveal” unfurl later in the book.</spoiler> ~~They are less twists and more so things that were said a different frequency, which, once tuned to, are clear to hear / pick up on.~~

Not only was Vivien a more vivid and compelling character to follow than Tom, but my favourite scenes in this book occurred in her section. (That is not to say she is not flawed, she is incredibly flawed and quite awful at moments.) Namely <spoiler>Vivien’s encounter with the boy at the station, Vivien recounting Diana’s death to Percy, and Vivien’s first evening with Francis</spoiler>. These felt like the most emotionally charged scenes of the book.

Overall, I had a great time reading this book and I know that I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.

Don’t let the terrible cover art fool you, this is up there with the most creative and rich narratives of 2025. A profound and utterly unique meditation on history and our relationship to it, seen through the lens of the near future, awash with the devastating effects of climate change.

The first half intrigues and draws you in, only for the second part to destroy everything you thought you knew or assumed. Somehow this is the first Ian McEwan novel that I’ve read. The gap between the first and second will surely be much shorter.

In the future, some people are interested in the past, namely now. An academic is interested in a poet called Francis Blundy who wrote a poem and recited it at his wife’s birthday party. The poem was never published. The academic wants to find it.

I thought the novel was enjoyable although not at the heights of brilliance one might expect from Mr McEwan in Part One. But Part Two takes it to another level and creates a rich and nuanced work.

I am grateful to have received a review copy from Jonathan Cape and NetGalley.

"Memory is a sponge. It soaks up materials from other time, other places and leaks it all over the moment in question. Its unreliability was one of the discoveries of twentieth century psychology.That did not stop people from relying on their own or from believing in the recollections of others, if it suited."

Reviewing an Ian McEwan novel never feels easy- a sense of in trepidation towards commenting on the work of a literary master .

First thing to say is that why this did not at least make the Booker Longlist is an utter mystery!!

What We Can Know is a book that will thematically be labelled in many different ways; but from this reader's perspective this a story about the power and falsehood of memory- how the illusion of success can lead to 'legendary status" ; the potency and intensity of being recognised as a master in your profession ( in this case a poet of the early 200s) and the higher self belief and wider recognition.

This is novel in two parts- the first part focuses on a 2014 event that becomes known as The Second Immortal Dinner - an evening where renowned poet, Francis Blundy, is said to have presented his wife Vivien with an extended piece of poetry known as A Corona for Vivien. This prose was read one time only to a small group of friends whose lives are entwined.

A century later in 2119- in a world decimated by war and climate change, Tom Metcalfe - a struggling academic - embarks upon a quest to find the elusive poem. In a world where, the lives of all in the past are explored through their emails, social media , digital footprint , Tom begins to piece together the lives of the attendees and supposed events of the night of the poem's recital. but what happened to the poem?

The second part of the novel is presented from the perspective of Vivien Blundy- her life through the 2000s leading to her eventual marriage to Francis. Vivien is the sole keeper of the truth as to what happened to the poem.

Combining philosophical questions , an adventure quest, the hidden secrets of lives and revelations that would change perceptions and history, Ian McEwan challenges us all to question where we are now as a species- what we could become - and can we ever know the real truth behind legacies and the illusory world of communication in our current age.

A book that needs to be discussed. A book that raises questions. A book that is also a brilliant story. Your emotions will be be pushed in all directions- the possible outcomes of human activity( fear for younger generations will emerge) the exploration of the lives of others resulting in deep empathy, compassion, dislike and possibly disgust.

A modern masterpiece- part one does push us into reflecting upon the world we live in today and the futre( and it's hard reading)but it's part two that really propels this great novel into something special.

Highly recommended

Ian Mc Ewan is an accomplished writer who is difficult to pigeonhole, his novels encompassing a smorgasbord of literary styles. ‘What We Can Know’ includes elements of a detective novel (the hunt for a legendary lost poem), eco dystopian science fiction (the setting of the first part is the UK in 100 years time after climate disaster has transformed it into an archipelago) and literary memoir. A heady mix indeed and the author succeeds admirably in amalgamating them memorable, cohesive whole that I thoroughly enjoyed and would rank among his best works.

This book is set across two timelines and centres around a lost poem. The story begins in 2014, with renowned poet Francis Blundy reading a poem he has written for his wife Vivien at a dinner party. The poem is never heard again, and no copy is ever found

In 2119, in a post apocalyptic Britain, Professor Thomas Metcalfe is preoccupied with finding a copy of the poem. In his search he becomes obsessed with the poet's wife, Vivien and their relationship. He begins to piece together a story of entangled loves, secrets, and a devastating crime that shatters his preconceived notions about the people involved. 

The second half of the novel shifts to the perspective of Vivien, revealing the "true" story of events from 2014. As the mystery of the poem unfolds, it exposes a monstrous crime and a fundamental betrayal that reverberates through the lives of the characters.

Another brilliant novel from one of my all time favourite authors. Ian McEwan is an auto buy author for me and I have yet to be disappointed.

Ive enjoyed most of Ian McEwan's books and was looking forward to reading this one. However I have to admit I feel.quite ambivalent about it, his writing as always is really flowing and catches you up into the story, but sadly this time I couldn't really get interested or warm to any of the flawed characters, it felt quite ponderous, and, not being an academic parts of it were just annoyingly pretentious - maybe deliberately so? I felt I had read about similar dystopian futures before but I enjoyed the last third more with Vivien's autobiographical take on what happened, particularly the slow decline of her cuckolded husband and the thoughts on love.
Thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Not since ‘Atonement’ have I been quite so invested in and riveted by an Ian McEwan novel. ‘What We Can Know’ explores the importance of literature, the value of academic research, and the appreciation of the creative life through the lives of authors and academics in 2014 and 2119. Nevertheless, this novel is not a paean to writers the world over. It is a detective story, an imagining of a world changed 100 years on, and a portrayal of the ways in which men and women love, deceive, champion and betray each other, no matter into which century they are born.

In 2014, feted poet Francis Blundy writes a corona to his wife, Vivien, celebrating their wonderful marriage. His inner circle proclaims it a masterpiece. However, it is never published and lost to the mists of time. Academic Tom Metcalfe has made it his life’s work to track down this poem and, in 2119, we see him following a clue which takes him to the wilds of an uninhabited Cotswolds island to begin his search. Much of Britain is under water and Tom can only fantasise about the seemingly bucolic nature of a life where to walk for miles in beautiful countryside or enjoy a varied diet is viewed as unremarkable.

Whilst McEwan addresses serious global issues through his portrayal of an imagined future, this is no apocalyptic tale. Life continues. Inevitably, because of the man-made disasters in the intervening one hundred years, it’s not a life that today’s reader would find very appealing. Perhaps that is why Tom is so keen to escape to the past through his studies where he, wrongly, imagines Swindon, for example, to have been ‘magical’. He admits that, in obsessing over Francis Blundy and his world, the ‘…pleasure-pain is emotionally disruptive’ and Tom’s partner, Rose, is sick of his infatuation with the long-dead Vivien. Such is the power of literary studies in the novel. And, of course, such is the power of McEwan’s literature that he can make the reader believe in this fictitious future.

The second half of the novel focuses on Vivien and her two marriages. She nurses her first husband, Percy, throughout his deterioration from Alzheimer’s and we are left in no doubt about her obligation, her exhaustion and her desperation. When she moves to Francis’s Cotswolds barn after Percy’s death, we understand her need to begin again. And, just like researcher Tom, based on our reading material, we begin to make assumptions about the Blundys’ life together.

This is a wonderful novel, brilliantly written, incredibly thought-provoking and very moving, not least for its rich depiction of what it is to love.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

University scholar Tom Metcalfe is delving into archives, researching a lost poem. It’s a long and complex piece: two hundred and ten lines with a construction that demands that the last line of each verse (or sonnet) becomes the first line of the next, and that the final verse comprises the first line of each of those that preceded it. In this poem, known as a corona, the last verse also needs to make sense. Tom has access to reams of information and has accumulated boxes of material, but in truth, he really has no idea whether he’ll ever be able to discover this fabled piece.

The year is 2119, and the world has changed, the result of a man-made disaster. Climate change, nuclear war, and resultant tsunamis have caused massive waves to crash ashore across coastal areas of the Atlantic. In the years since the resultant chaos has caused the collapse of fossil fuel, the world’s population has halved, and many species of flora and fauna are no longer to be found. The UK is now an archipelago, and travel is difficult for Tom in this land of islands. He is frequently required to commute by ferry from his home, where he teaches, to the separate island where his records are kept and where he undertakes his research. It’s a somewhat onerous journey. Wider travel is considered to be more dangerous in this rather lawless place. Long-distance travel is virtually impossible.

The poem was written in 2014. Only one copy was made, and all records of its construction were reportedly destroyed. It was a gift from the poet, Francis Blundy, to his wife Vivien. Blundy read it aloud at Vivien’s 54th birthday party and presented the sole written copy to her. Only a small gathering of family and friends witnessed the reading. Records of this event are purely in the form of emails and personal messages exchanged subsequent to the party. No trace of the poem in written form has been found. One technological advance that might aid Tom is the fact that advances in quantum computing and mathematics have enabled access to information previously hidden due to encryption. He’s desperately hoping to find something in these messages that might at least hint that some remnant of the poem has survived.

In tracking Tom’s quest, a number of themes are explored, including:

The causes and longer term impacts of what is termed the Derangement (in essence the wilful choice to ignore the obvious signs that something had to be done to ensure the survival of the world as we know it).

The relationship between Francis Bundy and his wife, Vivian. Also, to a lesser extent, the relationship between Tom and his partner Rose.

Poetry, in general, it’s constructs and its relationship to written fiction and non-fiction.

The cast here is kept relatively small, and I liked that. In essence, other than the characters I’ve named above, the only other people of interest are the various attendees at the 2014 birthday party. In time, all are to feature in one way or another and what an interesting lot they are. Their interactions are an intricate web of conflict, ambition, desire, and duplicity.

As the story progresses, a dark side to the tale develops. There are lines here on life’s brevity, on pain and suffering - some of which stopped me in my tracks. But truly, all shades are here. The narrative is, on the face of it, a simple one. But there are hidden complexities, all masterfully controlled by McEwan. The writing truly is superb. It’s a book to immerse yourself in, to enjoy, and to learn from, with characters you’ll enjoy and remember. I doubt I’ll read anything to match it in a long while.

I usually avoid novels by Booker prize winners as I often find them victims of style over substance - very clever, but not satisfying. But Ian McEwan is one of the Booker-favourites whose writing I do find quite accessible and his stories interesting. 'What We Can Know' is a clever, intriguing novel set mostly in the 2120s, in a world where rising sea levels and limited nuclear conflicts have changed the globe dramatically, but society still continues with modcons we can recognise - the internet, electricity, universities. The viewpoint character, Tom, is a professor of English literature whose life work is finding out about a fabled lost poem by (fictional) late 20th century poet Francis Blundy. The story covers Tom's life and his efforts to uncover the text of the missing verses, and the story of the poet, his wife, and their lives.

It was nice to read a post-apocalyptic novel that hadn't gone to the extremes of society being completely destroyed back to primitive times. The world McEwan writes about is quite plausible - certainly less privileged than our early 21st century existence, but not having completely lost all the progress and technology that humanity had made up to the point of disaster. That seems quite a likely scenario and a more hopeful one than the thought of everything being wiped out, although McEwan's 21st century is not one I would relish living through with its nuclear wars and massive environmental disasters.

There is something quite fascinating and enjoyable in reading about your own current time described by historians looking back from a hundred years in the future. I can't think of another book where the period described includes my own lifetime (part of getting old I suppose). It makes you appreciate again what we have, and wonder what more we should or could do as ordinary people to preserve it. Yet it's not a preachy novel, instead it recognises the truth of life - we are all primarily occupied with our own personal triumphs and tragedies and relatively few people make the level of sacrifice required to really campaign on bigger issues that don't concern our immediate lives.

It's also a clever way of making you think about history in general and how perception and interpretation may not be correct. What can we know about the motivations and complexities of people in the past, even the very near past? Even with huge amounts of data at their fingertips, Tom and his colleagues didn't get a lot of it right. So you do then wonder how many accepted facts - even those based on what seems like reasonable evidence - are not accurate at all.

It isn't a very happy story, but it is a clever one and McEwan's writing has a way of staying with you. I didn't expect the way it turned out, and the plot and characters are interesting. There is also a lot of description of the challenges of caring for someone with dementia, which is mostly why I don't describe it as a 'happy' story (the post-apocalyptic stuff is quite light in comparison to that and to most novels with such settings). Readers may choose to avoid or to read for that reason. Overall it is a well written and interesting novel and I would recommend it to those who enjoy literary fiction with intellectual themes but that is still accessible.

Surreal and menacingly slow. This is one that will be talked about for years to come. I enjoyed this one a lot.

Ian McEwan returns to the speculative fiction genre after 2019's Machines Like Me. That previous novel took us to an alternative 1980s, whereas What We Can Know opens in 2119. Climate change has impacted the works and changed it - huge swathes of the UK are underwater and the Bodleian Library is on a mountaintop in Wales. Academic Tom has come here to solve a literary mystery.

Back in 2014, celebrated poet Francis Blundy, is presenting his wife Vivien a poem, a corona, for her birthday. This poem was never published but for all those who heard it at the party, it is a masterpiece.

How these two disparate elements connect is the joy of McEwan's latest. I don't need to tell you how superbly written this - as ever McEwan knows how to grab the reader and take them on a literary ride. I loved every inch of this book - a total change from his last novel Lessons which looked to the past - and I will be recommending this wholeheartedly to all.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I read this book without looking at the blurb or any early reviews. A new McEwan is a treat, to be digested and studied.

It's 2014 and celebrated poet Francis Blundy, is surrounded by distinguished friends over dinner as he presents a long awaited poem, a corona, to his wife Vivien for her birthday.

The poem was rumoured to be a masterpiece, but somehow never released to the public.

More than 100 years later, in 2120, academic Tom at the University of the South Downs is trying to find out what happened to the poem.

McEwan casually drops hints that the world is a different place. There have been several wars and nuclear weapons have been used, causing tsunamis. Much of the UK is under water. There is a port in Swindon. Famous cities like New York have disappeared. Nigeria controls the Internet and pretty much everything else. North America is controlled by warlords. There are no planes or cars: just boats and bikes. The Bodleian library is now housed high up in Snowdonia and accessed by a funicular railway.

McEwan doesn't dwell on everyday life in 2120. Professor Thomas Metcalfe, who teaches the unfashionable Humanities to listless, disinterested students, is more concerned with finding Francis Blundy's lost poem.

Blundy, we're told, is as celebrated as Tennyson and Donne.

But in 2014, he and his friends are as shallow and stupid as the students of 2120 believe us all to be. Squandering the earth's resources, flying 2000 miles to spend a week in the sun when we already knew it caused cancer. Dallying in affairs. Wondering how to talk to people who had never been to university, and shockingly, used words like "hopefully ".

McEwan cleverly juxtaposes the future in all its awfulness against the selfish concerns of people earning livings as poets, academics and writers. How we all rail against the likes of Extinction Rebellion when we are inconvenienced!

His novel is a clarion call: wake up for God's sake. The president of America seems to be moving away from NATO, one of the organisations set up to protect us from future conflict after WW2. More countries have a nuclear deterrent. If the novel teaches us anything, it's that we are leaving a terrible legacy for those who follow us.