Ian McEwan?s latest novel, ?What We Can Know,? is many things at once: It?s a science fiction imagining of a future world devastated by climate catastrophe; it?s a literary mystery about a scholar?s search for a long-lost poem; it?s a deep dive into complicated marriages; and it?s a meditation on how the past lingers and how history morphs with time.

?It?s the best thing McEwan has written in ages,? our critic Dwight Garner wrote in his review. ?It?s a sophisticated entertainment of a high order.?

In this episode of the Book Review Book Club, the host MJ Franklin discusses ?What We Can Know? with his colleagues Sarah Lyall (who profiled McEwan for the Book Review this year) and Leah Greenblatt. You can follow along, and add your own comments to the discussion here.

Other Books mentioned in this discussion:

?Atonement,? ?Saturday,? ?On Chesil Beach,? ?The Comfort of Strangers,? ?The Cement Garden? and ?Enduring Love,? by Ian McEwan

?Fleishman Is in Trouble,? by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

?Fates and Furies,? by Lauren Groff

?Marston Meadows: A Corona for Prue,? by John Fuller

?How the Word Is Passed,? by Clint Smith

?The Stranger?s Child,? ?The Line of Beauty? and ?Our Evenings,? by Alan Hollinghurst

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review?s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected].

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

From political tell-alls to the continued triumph of romantasy novels, it?s been an eventful year in the publishing world. On this week?s episode, host MJ Franklin talks with his Book Review colleagues Alexandra Alter, Tina Jordan and John Maher about the biggest book stories and most significant reading trends of 2025.

Correction: An earlier version of this podcast referred incorrectly to an arts grant from the Mellon Foundation. The $50 million initiative, launched by Mellon, is a collaborative effort with six other foundations and is intended to support nonprofit literary organizations across a range of genres and forms; it is not solely intended to support poetry.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

All year long, the staff of The New York Times Book Review conducts a running discussion over what belongs on its year-end Top 10 list. In this week?s episode, host Gilbert Cruz gathers a group of fellow Book Review editors to talk about the most exciting fiction and nonfiction of the year. 

Here are the books discussed in this week?s episode:

Fiction

Nonfiction

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.