What We Can Know

De: Ian McEwan

Narrado por: David Rintoul, Rachel Bavidge

"On May 20th 2119 I took the overnight ferry from Port Marlborough and arrived in the late afternoon at the small quay near Maentwrog-under-Sea that serves the Bodleian Snowdonia library. The late spring was warm and tranquil, and the journey had been smooth though, as everyone discovers, sleeping in a sitting position on a slatted wooden bench is an ordeal. I walked two miles up a picturesque track towards the water-and-gravity powered funicular. Four library users joined me and we small-talked as we were carried a thousand feet up the mountain in the creaking polished oak carriage. I ate supper alone in the library canteen and afterwards phoned my friend and colleague, Rose Church to let her know that I had arrived safely. That night, I slept well in my cell of a bedroom. It did not bother me, as it had on my first visit, to share a bathroom with seven others..."

And so begins Ian McEwan's latest novel.

©2025 Ian McEwan (P)2025 Recorded Books

Great writing, and a slow-burning plot

A very fun read, with lively and poignant prose, three-dimensional characters, some perceptive social commentary about the blind-spots prevalent in our current era, and a clever set-up and twist. What seems like an almost plot-free story in the first half is revealed to be not-what-it-seems in the second half. Both readers are excellent. “Hopefully” you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Second half makes up for the first and more

Not sure if it was the male reader in the first half that spoiled it, or if the failure was purposeful misdirection and superficial storyline. BUT, the second half more than makes up for the endless pursuit of a missing poem, which sounded underwhelming, not brilliant. By the end, McEwan had me spellbound and genuflecting before his genius again, as with Atonement. Stick with it and you shall be rewarded. Favorite part: When sentence adverbs are weaponized against the pompous poet.

I should have read this on Kindle

I almost gave up on this book. The narrator for most of the book had a stuffy professorial tone which made the book sound like an article in a refereed journal. The storyline kept circling and I would think I had somehow lost my place, but no, it was just another perspective on the same events. I read Amazon reviews which encouraged the reader to hang on, it gets better, and it did. Toward the end, we got a new narrator with more energy and a writing style which was less ponderous. It was worth waiting for, barely. I highly recommend that you read this book, do not listen to it

McEwan Does It Again

I have been reading Ian McEwan since the 1970s and I always look forward to a new work by him. "Atonement" is my favorite McEwan novel and I think it is his masterpiece. "What We Can Know" is not far behind. At first, I was not impressed. I thought he had churned out a simple post-apocalypse story of societal and environmental disaster. But McEwan does not write simple stories and soon his brilliance came through. No writer can juggle timelines as well as he does. The plot and characters of a current timeline mesh seamlessly and masterfully with those of tale set in the early 22nd century. The result is an entertaining and intelligent commentary on how we discover and understand the past. And a very good listening experience! I do not think that this work is a great as "Atonement". But it, too, shows that McEwan is a virtuoso of intricate plotting. I hope he has more novels to come.

Thought provoking

Best novel I’ve read in some time. Global heating is deadly but poetry wins out.

Missing Pages 210-229 from Part II

Enjoyed the book- prefer other McEwan books, but liked this one. Also have a kindle version and noticed The audio is missing 20 important pages from the beginning of Part II. Sorry makes more sense with them.

Excellent writer and story

I would like to refer to the text while listening to an audio book. can you do the through Audible

Our Place in The Chronology

McEwan’s prose, like human existence, is intricate and profoundly connected, always on the verge of self-aggrandizement and myopia as his stories within the story show. This novel is brilliant because it shows us those these truths while ultimately reminding us that perhaps humility and beauty will be the only things that will survive. With or without us.

Tremendous

So beautifully written. A pleasure. Unusual inventive story, great characters. Audible wants 5 more words.

Relationship as microcosm for the macrocosm.

It took me a minute to get into this book. The initial description of people at a dinner party felt banal, like it was going to be a contemporary book of manners. But because Stephen Colbert chose it as his book of the month I persevered. The journey was worth it. The switch in perspective midway from the masculine and rational, to the feminine and wounded felt like a a parable for the period of history described. Whether from a single woman or Gaia herself, there will be consequences.