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.
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.
“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.
McEwan, the Booker Prize-winning British author, is calling “What We Can Know” a work of science fiction “without the science.".
My ambition in this novel was to let the past, present and future address each other across the barriers of time.”.
