May 6 What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
“This longing for what was never known and is lost needs its word, something beyond nostalgia, which pines for what was once known.”
I recently read the latest work by Ian McEwan and loved it. McEwan is always so smart, witty and unexpected in his writing. This newest novel by McEwan takes place in 2119 after the earth has undergone rising seas. The scholar and historian Tom Metcalfe has devoted his career to studying a dinner in 2014 where his favorite poet reads a poem written for his wife on her birthday and the poem has never been seen or heard again. As Tom embarks on his quest to find the poem, what he learns along the way will alter the course of his thinking and his career.
McEwan is known for stories that take a twist that turns the story you thought you were reading on its head, and this book is no exception. His writing always makes you think about things from a different viewpoint and in this work, he confronts the question of what we can ever know about each other and what is kept secret from even those who love us most. It had me contemplating the future, the deep questions of life and why we do the things that we do. I enjoyed the intellectual journey that this book took me on, and if you like a smart, well-written work of literature that will make your brain tingle, pick this one up today!
