Latest news with #WhatWeCanKnow
The Independent
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Ian McEwan's next novel, 'What We Can Know,' is science fiction 'without the science'
The next novel by Ian McEwan will be a post-apocalyptic story, set in part in the 22nd century and centered on a scholar's immersion into a poem written during happier times. McEwan, the Booker Prize-winning British author, is calling 'What We Can Know' a work of science fiction 'without the science." 'I've written a novel about a quest, a crime, revenge, fame, a tangled love affair, mental illness, love of nature and poetry, and how, through all natural and self-inflicted catastrophes, we have the knack of surviving," McEwan said in a statement released Friday through Alfred A. Knopf, which announced the book will be published Sept. 16. "In our times, we know more about the world than we ever did, and such knowledge will be hard to erase. My ambition in this novel was to let the past, present and future address each other across the barriers of time.' The 76-year-old McEwan has previously imagined disasters and disruptions — and how we respond — whether the threat of climate change in 'Solar,' a radiation cloud in 'Lessons' or artificial intelligence in 'Machines Like Me.' Knopf publisher and editor-in-chief Jordan Pavlin said in a statement that 'What We Can Know' is an exploration of the 'limits of our knowledge," whether of other people or the arc of the past. 'As the title suggests, the book calls into question the limits of our knowledge about our most intimate companions, and about history itself,' Pavlin said. 'How many irrecoverable secrets and stories are lost to the past? McEwan's genius in this novel is to recover, in an exquisite feat of storytelling, a long-lost secret.'
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ian McEwan's next novel, 'What We Can Know,' is science fiction 'without the science'
NEW YORK (AP) — The next novel by Ian McEwan will be a post-apocalyptic story, set in part in the 22nd century and centered on a scholar's immersion into a poem written during happier times. McEwan, the Booker Prize-winning British author, is calling 'What We Can Know' a work of science fiction 'without the science." 'I've written a novel about a quest, a crime, revenge, fame, a tangled love affair, mental illness, love of nature and poetry, and how, through all natural and self-inflicted catastrophes, we have the knack of surviving," McEwan said in a statement released Friday through Alfred A. Knopf, which announced the book will be published Sept. 16. "In our times, we know more about the world than we ever did, and such knowledge will be hard to erase. My ambition in this novel was to let the past, present and future address each other across the barriers of time.' The 76-year-old McEwan has previously imagined disasters and disruptions — and how we respond — whether the threat of climate change in 'Solar,' a radiation cloud in 'Lessons' or artificial intelligence in 'Machines Like Me.' Knopf publisher and editor-in-chief Jordan Pavlin said in a statement that 'What We Can Know' is an exploration of the 'limits of our knowledge," whether of other people or the arc of the past. 'As the title suggests, the book calls into question the limits of our knowledge about our most intimate companions, and about history itself,' Pavlin said. 'How many irrecoverable secrets and stories are lost to the past? McEwan's genius in this novel is to recover, in an exquisite feat of storytelling, a long-lost secret.'
Associated Press
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Ian McEwan's next novel, ‘What We Can Know,' is science fiction ‘without the science'
NEW YORK (AP) — The next novel by Ian McEwan will be a post-apocalyptic story, set in part in the 22nd century and centered on a scholar's immersion into a poem written during happier times. McEwan, the Booker Prize-winning British author, is calling 'What We Can Know' a work of science fiction 'without the science.' 'I've written a novel about a quest, a crime, revenge, fame, a tangled love affair, mental illness, love of nature and poetry, and how, through all natural and self-inflicted catastrophes, we have the knack of surviving,' McEwan said in a statement released Friday through Alfred A. Knopf, which announced the book will be published Sept. 16. 'In our times, we know more about the world than we ever did, and such knowledge will be hard to erase. My ambition in this novel was to let the past, present and future address each other across the barriers of time.' The 76-year-old McEwan has previously imagined disasters and disruptions — and how we respond — whether the threat of climate change in 'Solar,' a radiation cloud in 'Lessons' or artificial intelligence in 'Machines Like Me.' Knopf publisher and editor-in-chief Jordan Pavlin said in a statement that 'What We Can Know' is an exploration of the 'limits of our knowledge,' whether of other people or the arc of the past. 'As the title suggests, the book calls into question the limits of our knowledge about our most intimate companions, and about history itself,' Pavlin said. 'How many irrecoverable secrets and stories are lost to the past? McEwan's genius in this novel is to recover, in an exquisite feat of storytelling, a long-lost secret.'
The Guardian
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Ian McEwan novel What We Can Know to be published this year
A new novel by Ian McEwan, which is set nearly a century in the future in a UK partly submerged by rising seas, will come out later this year. What We Can Know is 'science fiction without the science', said McEwan. 'My ambition in this novel was to let the past, present and future address each other across the barriers of time.' The novel is a 'deeply humane' work that 'defies categorisation' according to its publisher Jonathan Cape, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Set in 2119, the novel imagines a Britain that has become an archipelago, after the country's lowlands were submerged by rising tides. It follows Tom Metcalfe, an academic at the fictional University of the South Downs. Searching in the archives, Tom comes across a clue that may lead to a lost poem, read aloud in 2014 and never heard again. His find reveals a story of entangled loves and a crime that destroys his assumptions about people he thought he knew well. 'This is a novel about history, and what we can know of it, and of each other,' said McEwan. 'We live our lives between the dead and the yet to be born. Of the dead we know a little, but not as much as we think. About the present, we disagree fiercely. People of the future are beyond our reckoning, but we're troubled by what we'll bequeath them. As they look back at us, what will our descendants think, when they contemplate the diminished world we left them? They might envy us.' 'To catch at these thoughts, I've written a novel about a quest, a crime, revenge, fame, a tangled love affair, mental illness, love of nature and poetry, and how, through all natural and self-inflicted catastrophes, we have the knack of surviving somehow,' he added. McEwan has published 17 novels including Atonement, Enduring Love, On Chesil Beach and, most recently, Lessons, described as 'compassionate and gentle' and 'a tale of humane grace' by Beejay Silcox in the Guardian. In 1998, McEwan won the Booker prize with his novel Amsterdam. He is also the author of two short story collections, First Love, Last Rites, which won the Somerset Maugham award, and In Between the Sheets. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion What We Can Know by Ian McEwan is published by Jonathan Cape (£22) on 18 September. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at for £19.80. Delivery charges may apply.
