What do readers think of What We Can Know by Ian McEwan? Write your own review.

4.25 stars. I was quite excited to get this book because of all the hype surrounding it. As the by-line of the book review in this week's New Yorker (9/29/2025) states: "lan McEwan casts the climate crisis as a story of adultery." Indeed both parts of the book (Part 1 takes place in the future; Part 2 in the recent past: 2014 when the poem that is central to the book was written) are filled with people cheating on their spouses yet all the time saying how they love their spouses. But this moves another theme - what connects people?

The search for a poem written in 2014 (it's now 2119) that fascinates the narrator, Tom, in Part 1) is a trip down memory lane against the ravages of a climatically changed world. Tom's search really mythologizes Vivian and Francis Blundy (the poet is Francis) and when we get to Part 2, you realizes that the past is not always as glorious.

Enjoyed the read but it took awhile for me to totally understand the message.

I am late reviewing for 2 reasons: 1. many folks with high degrees in literature already praised this book (even McEwan himself often interviewed). 2. I forced myself to read every word of part 1 which only "proved" we can know very little from reams of social media and email reports even by participants in an event. Part 2 is a "secret" journal reporting what actually happened at a special dinner party by its most educated and intelligent participant. A great story in part 2 compared to the "slog" thru part one.

The book "What We Can Know" felt more like a "what we can't know" by the time I finished. This book was not what I would call a page turner until part 2 but it was definitely a book I would recommend to others and will read a second time. It's a book to keep coming back to, a book to enjoy the writing, to ponder the questions that bubble up as you read, to luxuriate in the writing and themes, to let yourself ponder what resonates and what that says about you that you can relate to key sentences or descriptions. This book is a futuristic look back in the beginning, a climate sci-fi, characters from a literary set that provide good conversation and settings, it's a love story, wrapped with a lifestyle of affairs and suddenly you find yourself in the middle of a murder mystery. In the first half of the book, there are loaded paragraphs and sentences that are engaging and thought provoking but overall, not much is happening. The focus seems to be on a dinner party the book opens with and a poem written and read by Frances Blundy. Descriptions and details go on for a long time, page after page after page. But dear reader, you must be persistent and get to part 2 where things pick up, surprises unfold and suddenly, you finish with the satisfaction of having read a good story where the characters stay with you and you appreciate how good the writing was. For those in book clubs, this is a gold mine. So many themes to explore, ideas to go deeper into, concepts to look up, and questions to ask such as " what were some key sentences or paragraphs that made you pause as you read?" If you are looking for a book to read slowly, to take your time and just enjoy what is being described without expecting to be entertained by a fast moving plot, a book that is a bit harder to read as the topics at time seem random and unrelated, if you are open to finding a new way to experience the pleasures of reading, then invest your time and attention and enjoy this book is my recommendation. I am delighted at the time I invested even if it took me longer than usual to get through it. I see this as a sign that I wanted to pause and consider how what I was reading was impacting my senses, my emotions, my cerebral experience overall. This is going on the list of another good read in 2025!

The author has done an excellent job of giving the characters in this story extreme depth, and I found myself immersed in their lives and desires. McEwan put part of the story in the future and part of it the past, which creates an account that is fascinating and thought-provoking. The story shows that there is hope no matter what the future brings. A person could reread the book several times to discover the various nuances of each person's life and hopes.

At this point, this book is a Did Not Finish for me. I used to be a literary fiction snob--no HEA for me, or quirky detectives, or space alien angst. I like gritty, worldwide politics and huge moral ethical dilemmas. So I should have been all in for this one. I loved Atonement and Amsterdam and Chesil Beach and Solar and a few others of his. But this book, at this time, was a non-starter. He is sneaky as he reveals little bits of important info (where are we? When are we? What happened?) and for someone who counts on setting as a foundational element of enjoyable fiction, I was pissed off almost all the time while reading. And so many words that went nowhere! So much story about nothing! I do not care about these people at all. McEwan is at his erudite best and I had to look up stuff all the time to find out if his literary bon mots were real or made up, If you care about sonnets and coronas, and climate change, read this. Sorry I am such a dolt. I'll keep plowing through, though.. I hear the second half is better.

What We Can Know starts with an interesting premise. Tom Metcalfe is a scholar in the year 2119. He’s researching a literary figure from the early 21st Century. In the intervening years, the world as we know it has ceased to exist. England is now a series of islands as the lowlands have been submerged by rising seas. McEwan spells out how it all came to be. Unfortunately, it actually sounds plausible - the rise of AI, climate change denial coupled with extreme weather, nuclear war between rival states such as Pakistan and India.

The objects of Tom’s study are Vivien and Francis Blundy. For her 54th birthday in 2014, Francis has written a corona of 10 sonnets and his intent is to give her the only copy at her birthday party. The poem is never seen or heard again. Yet, it goes on to have an almost mythical status. Tom ‘s hope is to find the missing poem. But what he finds is something entirely different. I struggled to relate to any of the characters. Francis is well known and expects the world to revolve around him. He’s a complete snob, a climate change denier. Vivien has opted for a comfortable life with him. Infidelities abound. Tom was the perennial scholar, wrapped up in his own little area of expertise almost to the exclusion of his real world.

It’s a unique concept to write of our current time as if from someone in the future, looking back. It implies a remove, a coolness, while allowing McEwan to give his opinions of these times as facts, not that he’s wrong.
Vivien’s experience with her first husband’s Alzheimer’s felt very real - the claustrophobia, the banality of it all hit home.

The book is two very different halves. It defies being classified in a single genre, with elements of dystopia, mystery and literary fiction. I struggled to stay engaged with the first half. The second half, told from Vivien’s memoir written in her latter years, worked much better for me. I’ve been watching a lot of The Great British Baking Show, so I’ll take a line from Paul Hollywood and describe McEwan’s writing as beautiful flavors but over baked and too dense.

My thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for an advance copy of this book.

What We Can Know starts with an interesting premise. Tom Metcalfe is a scholar in the year 2119. He’s researching a literary figure from the early 21st Century. In the intervening years, the world as we know it has ceased to exist. England is now a series of islands as the lowlands have been submerged by rising seas. McEwan spells out how it all came to be. Unfortunately, it actually sounds plausible - the rise of AI, climate change denial coupled with extreme weather, nuclear war between rival states such as Pakistan and India.

The objects of Tom’s study are Vivien and Francis Blundy. For her 54th birthday in 2014, Francis has written a corona of 10 sonnets and his intent is to give her the only copy at her birthday party. The poem is never seen or heard again. Yet, it goes on to have an almost mythical status. Tom ‘s hope is to find the missing poem. But what he finds is something entirely different.

I struggled to relate to any of the characters. Francis is well known and expects the world to revolve around him. He’s a complete snob, a climate change denier. Vivien has opted for a comfortable life with him. Infidelities abound. Tom was the perennial scholar, wrapped up in his own little area of expertise almost to the exclusion of his real world.

It’s a unique concept to write of our current time as if from someone in the future, looking back. It implies a remove, a coolness, while allowing McEwan to give his opinions of these times as facts, not that he’s wrong. Vivien’s experience with her first husband’s Alzheimer’s felt very real - the claustrophobia, the banality of it all hit home.
The book is two very different halves. It defies being classified in a single genre, with elements of dystopia, mystery and literary fiction. I struggled to stay engaged with the first half. The second half, told from Vivien’s memoir written in her latter years, worked much better for me. I’ve been watching a lot of The Great British Baking Show, so I’ll take a line from Paul Hollywood and describe McEwan’s writing as beautiful flavors but over baked and too dense.

My thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for an advance copy of this book.