What We Can Know

In a world submerged by rising seas, can the secrets of the past be discovered? The breathtaking Sunday Times bestseller. 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. ‘Full of wisdom and heart. I loved it’ Elif Shafak ‘A gripping page-turner’ Observer ‘It gave me so much pleasure’ New York 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* © Ian McEwan 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025