What We Can Know

In a world submerged by rising seas, can the secrets of the past be discovered?

The breathtaking Sunday Times bestseller.

`Full of wisdom and heart. I loved it' Elif Shafak

`A gripping page-turner' Observer

`It gave me so much pleasure' New York Times

2014: A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people speculate about its message.

2119: With the UK's lowlands submerged by rising seas, those who survive are haunted by all that has been lost.

Tom Metcalfe, a university scholar, pores over the archives of the early twenty-first century. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the lost poem, he reveals a story of entangled love and a brutal crime that challenges everything he thought he knew about the past.

`What We Can Know may well have created a new genre' Sunday Times

`Brilliantly plotted. In What We Can Know, the past is an irresistible riddle' Washington Post

`Propulsive. entertaining and enjoyable' Financial Times

`A dazzling novel' Independent

`Haunting, playful and ultimately hopeful. A wonderful book' Kaliane Bradley

`A poignant love letter to the vanishing past' Guardian

*A book of the year for the Sunday Times, Guardian, New York Times, New Statesman, Spectator, New Yorker, i Paper and Barack Obama*