What We Can Know: A Novel

"Ian McEwan returns with his nineteenth(!) novel, What We Can Know . He describes it as “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.” In the apocalyptic 22th century, a historian searches for a literary manuscript last seen at a scandalous 2014 dinner party; since then the world has been ravaged by fire, pandemic, nuclear explosions, rising sea levels. Imagine A.S. Byatt’s Possession set in the world of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road , and you’ll get an idea—and McEwan brings bravura and extravagance to this terrible vision. The New York Times’ Dwight Garner declared it “a piece of late-career showmanship” from the old master. “It gave me so much pleasure,” he added, “I sometimes felt like laughing.”"

"Narrators David Rintoul and Rachel Bavidge perform with distinct British styles as this speculative novel jumps around in time. Rintoul portrays Tom, who lives in the 22nd century, when the diminished world has experienced climate catastrophes and been ravaged by AI-controlled wars. Rintoul’s professorial tone and diction strongly suggest an interior life of the mind. Bavidge captures Vivien’s 21st-century conflicts, sensuality, and intellect. She’s the wife of famous poet Francis Blundy, whose lost work, “A Corona for Vivien,” provides the subplot of Tom’s search for it a century later. (11 hours)"