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What We Can Know

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SKU:
ISBN 9781529959208
UPC:
9781529959208
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New
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Product Description

What We Can Know

Author(s): Ian McEwan

Format: Paperback

In a world submerged by rising seas, can the secrets of the past be discovered? The breathtaking Sunday Times bestseller.
'Full of wisdom and heart. I loved it' — Elif Shafak
'A gripping page-turner' — Observer
'It gave me so much pleasure' — New York Times

2014: A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people speculate about its message.

2119: With the UK's lowlands submerged by rising seas, those who survive are haunted by all that has been lost.

Tom Metcalfe, a university scholar, pores over the archives of the early twenty-first century. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the lost poem, he reveals a story of entangled love and a brutal crime that challenges everything he thought he knew about the past.

'What We Can Know may well have created a new genre' — Sunday Times

'Brilliantly plotted... In What We Can Know, the past is an irresistible riddle' — Washington Post

'Propulsive...entertaining and enjoyable' — Financial Times

'A dazzling novel' — Independent

'Haunting, playful and ultimately hopeful... A wonderful book' — Kaliane Bradley

'A poignant love letter to the vanishing past' — Guardian

*A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the Sunday Times, Guardian, New York Times, New Statesman, Spectator, New Yorker, i Paper and Barack Obama*

About the Author

Ian 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.


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Other Details

Publisher:
Vintage
Publisher Title:
What We Can Know
Authors:
Ian McEwan
Format:
Paperback
Imprint:
Vintage
Publication Date:
01/08/2026
Language:
English
Pages:
320
Dimensions:
197 × 129 × 22 mm
Weight:
254 g