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

Dreary

I cannot believe I read the whole thing. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, as the writing did draw me along. But, to nowhere. This was just a lengthy discourse of romantic infidelity and guilty pleasures. This title is mislabeled as science fiction since it contains no fiction other than fictitious characters. The only science is that future electric bikes will be constructed of wood, as wood is apparently more available than metal in a post-apocalyptic world without biodiversity. It is no literary leap to conceive that future generations will view our generation with disdain for our inattention to the climate crisis (highlighted in a brief chapter). A disappointment and sorry waste of time.

I loved Atonement, but…

I loved Atonement, but… this is just agonizing to listen to. I am halfway through and I think I’ve had enough.

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.