Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know: A Taut, Overstuffed Vision of the Future
Renowned British author Ian McEwan returns with his 18th novel, What We Can Know, a bold fusion of post-apocalyptic speculation, literary mystery, and emotional labyrinth, though some critics find it overambitious.
A Post-Apocalyptic Quest Across Time
Set in 2119, McEwan imagines a Britain transformed into an archipelago after catastrophic sea-level rise. In this fragmented landscape, scholar Tom Metcalfe, based at the fictional University of the South Downs, scours past communications, emails, journals, lost artifacts, to locate a vanished epic love poem, A Corona for Vivien, first heard at a 2014 dinner party and gone forever, or so everyone believes.
McEwan characterizes the work as “science fiction without the science,” blending themes of revenge, mental illness, murder, love, memory, and poetry into a tight, atmospheric narrative that bridges past, present, and deepest future.
Critical Impressions: Beauty Meets Burden
Praise for the novel has been effusive. The Sunday Times lauds McEwan’s writing as “trim, beautifully ordered sentences,” while The Times Literary Supplement, Observer, and Independent offer similarly glowing endorsements, calling it a darkly academic mystery, a “dazzling” treatise on memory and nostalgia, and a masterful “biblio-mystery” exploring time and loss.
However, not all reactions are glowing. The Telegraph offers a more measured view, describing the book as “ultimately overstuffed,” hinting that its ambitious scope may weigh the narrative down
Telegraph.
Author’s Vision and Legacy Reflections
McEwan’s intention is clear: to confront what it means to know the past, understand each other, and imagine what remains for the future. As he observes, “Of the dead we know a little, but not as much as we think… As they look back at us… they might envy us”.
The book is slated for publication in the UK by Jonathan Cape on September 18, 2025, priced at £22; meanwhile, the U.S. release will follow via Alfred A. Knopf on September 16.