What We Can Know is the 18th novel by author Ian McEwan, published in 2025 by Jonathan Cape. The novel is set almost a century in the future, in 2119, in a UK partially submerged by rising seas, and is centered on Tom Metcalfe, an academic at the fictional University of the South Downs, who is investigating a lost poem, read aloud at a party in 2014. McEwan has described the book as a work of science fiction "without the science." In the book, people in 2119 call the first half of the 21st century "the Derangement" because everyone knew about climate change but failed to act. Ian McEwan, born 21 June 1948, is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". McEwan began his career writing sparse, Gothic short stories. The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981) were his first two novels, and earned him the nickname "Ian Macabre". These were followed by three novels of some success in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1997, he published Enduring Love, which was made into a film. He won the Man Booker Prize with Amsterdam (1998). In 2011, he was awarded the Jerusalem Prize. In 2001, he published Atonement, which was made into an Oscar-winning film. This was followed by Saturday (2003), On Chesil Beach (2007) and Solar (2010).