Spanning from the past to the future, asking profound questions about identity

IN A world submerged by rising seas, What We Can Know spans the past, present and future to ask profound questions about who we are and where we are going.

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IN IAN McEwan's gripping thriller 'What We Can Know', a researcher in 2119 navigates a world transformed by rising seas to uncover the mystery of a lost poem and the complex life of Vivien Blundy, wife to a great poet. | Supplied

Here' an extract of the thriller by Ian McEwan.

On 20 May 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 spring day 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 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.

After breakfast, one of the assistant archivists, Donald Drummond, showed me to my carrel.