‘What We Can Know’: A Dance With Strangers

In a drowned world, a 22nd-century scholar hunts for a famous lost poem.

In "What We Can Know" by Ian McEwan, Tom goes back in time to find a poem. Knoft

Ian McEwan is one of those novelists who is guaranteed to make the news when they release a new work. Considered one of contemporary English literature’s most significant voices, the British writer first gained recognition for dark short stories, followed by morally provocative novels like “The Cement Garden” and “Amsterdam,” which won the Booker Prize in 1998.

However, “What We Can Know” is a more intellectually provocative novel than a moral one; the author fictionally explores how we learn from history and the limits of our understanding. McEwan has described it as “science fiction without the science,” which turns out to be true in more than one way.

The Lost Poem

Tom, the narrator, is a historical scholar living in 2119. This is after an ecological calamity flooded much of the world in 2042. This disaster was due to the effects of climate change and a limited nuclear weapons exchange. Many major cities are gone, and the UK has been transformed into an archipelago.