''McEwan''s most richly layered work'' Sunday Times ''A gripping page-turner'' Observer ''A daring, beautiful novel, full of wisdom and heart'' Elif Shafak ''A big, unabashed crowd-pleaser'' TLS A quest, a literary thriller and a love story, What We Can Know spans the past, present and future to ask profound questions about who we are and where we are going. 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. 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.

Autorentext
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.

Klappentext

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*