Overview

• Set in 2119 after a cataclysm dubbed The Derangement, the novel imagines England as scattered island republics, a lawless and fractured United States, and Nigeria as a global power.
• Professor Tom Metcalfe scours digital detritus and archives for Francis Blundy’s legendary unpublished “A Corona for Vivien,” a corona of 15 sonnets whose final sonnet is built from the first lines of the preceding 14.
• The narrative shifts partway through to a new voice that reframes Tom’s research and alters the reader’s perspective without relying on futuristic technology.
• Within this future, the humanities have lost status, and Tom views our present as an era of abundance and folly that leaves rich clues for his literary investigation.
• Published by Alfred A. Knopf, the book is described by McEwan as “science fiction without the science,” and early reviews note its familiar McEwan tone and concerns.