{"product_id":"what-we-can-know-9781529959208","title":"What We Can Know","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a world submerged by rising seas, can the secrets of the past be discovered? The exhilarating and beautiful Sunday Times bestseller  'One of the finest writers alive' Sunday Times  2014- A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people speculate about its message, but no copy has yet been found.  2119- The lowlands of the UK have been submerged by rising seas. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost.  Tom Metcalfe, a scholar at the University of the South Downs, part of Britain's remaining archipelagos, pores over the archives of the early twenty-first century, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith.  When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the great lost poem, revelations of entangled love and a brutal crime emerge, destroying his assumptions about a story he thought he knew intimately.  A quest, a literary thriller and a love story, What We Can Know is a masterpiece that reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe, and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.  'A true master' Daily Telegraph  'McEwan is one of the most accomplished craftsmen of plot and prose' New York Times\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781529959208\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: 23 Jun 2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Vintage Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: London, United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 19.7(H)x12.9(L)x2.2(W)254\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): 254\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003eIan McEwan is the critically acclaimed author of nineteen novels and two short story collections. His first published work, a collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award; The Cement Garden; Enduring Love; Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize; Atonement; Saturday; On Chesil Beach; Solar; Sweet Tooth; The Children Act; Nutshell; Machines Like Me; and Lessons. Atonement, Enduring Love, The Children Act and On Chesil Beach have all been adapted for the big screen.\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat We Can Know\u003c\/i\u003e may well have created a new genre:\u003c\/b\u003e the postapocalyptic campus novel. Imagine AS Byatt’s \u003ci\u003ePossession\u003c\/i\u003e crossed with Cormac McCarthy’s \u003ci\u003eThe Road\u003c\/i\u003e. Dark academia meets the big ideas novel, \u003cb\u003eall conveyed in McEwan’s trim, beautifully ordered sentences\u003c\/b\u003e -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eAn ambitious and an accomplished work of fiction, it’s…\u003cb\u003erewarding and thought-provoking\u003c\/b\u003e * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat We Can Know\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea daring, beautiful novel, full of wisdom and heart\u003c\/b\u003e -- Elif Shafak\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e[A] dazzling novel…\u003c\/b\u003e [\u003ci\u003eWhat We Can Know\u003c\/i\u003e] has an eloquent fury about the way our misguided present is allowing nature to shrivel by “slow roasting” * Independent *\u003cbr\u003eMcEwan’s \u003cb\u003earrestingly relevant\u003c\/b\u003e new novel… [is] a fiercely involving biblio-mystery deepened by musings on knowledge and understanding, time and memory * Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA gripping page-turner\u003c\/b\u003e about marital duty and guilt * Observer *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn enjoyable work…\u003c\/b\u003e McEwan excels at exploiting narrative details for dramatic effect * Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat We Can Know \u003c\/i\u003eis an \u003cb\u003eastonishing \u003c\/b\u003econsideration of how the tendrils of the past leak into the present… It’s \u003cb\u003eterrifyingly believable…\u003c\/b\u003e McEwan cleverly structures the book to reveal his inner workings, while the thoughts he raises around loss…rumble spectacularly throughout * UK Press Syndication *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat We Can Know\u003c\/i\u003e delivers one of McEwan’s finest comic set pieces… [and] can be read as an optimist’s manifesto, a rage against our consensus of decline… [and] a cautionary tale of unchecked nostalgia * Times Literary Supplement *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn elegy from our future, haunting, playful and ultimately hopeful\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWhat We Can Know\u003c\/i\u003e is a wonderful book that interrogates the limits of knowledge and interpretation, and bold depiction of our decadent, dying era -- Kaliane Bradley","brand":"Ian McEwan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48880262152409,"sku":"9781529959208","price":24.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0502\/9530\/8441\/files\/9781529959208.jpg?v=1783000242","url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/what-we-can-know-9781529959208","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}