“What We Can Know”
In his new novel, Ian McEwan weaves together “a quest, a crime, revenge, fame, a tangled love affair, mental illness, love of nature and poetry, and how, through all natural and self-inflicted catastrophes, we have the knack of surviving somehow.” “What We Can Know,” from the Booker Prize-winning author of “Atonement,” unfolds as a tale whose many pieces fall into place only upon final reflection.
A famous love poem recited at a dinner party in 2014 becomes lost — no copies exist. A century later, Tom, a U.K. humanities professor, becomes obsessed with recovering it. His pursuit through archives and faded memories turns into a literary detective story, ultimately taking him on a voyage to a remote island in hopes of retrieving the vanished work.
McEwan’s imagined 22nd century is scarred by a nuclear accident and climate collapse. A resentful younger generation rails against our era, when humanity recognized the dangers but failed to act effectively. Their lives are reduced to drinking “acorn coffee” and eating “protein cakes,” while the seas rise around them.
As the title suggests, history offers only the illusion of certainty. Even in a digital age with access to immense amounts of data, what is remembered remains imperfect. Memories survive as recollections, colored by interpretation and speculation. Will Tom ultimately uncover the true message of the poem and the reality of the people behind it?
“Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI”
Some of the world’s richest and most powerful men have built their empires on technology. A billionaire’s club — including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos — of men with controversial mixes of genius and sometimes outlandish private and public images. Add to the list Sam Altman, the enigmatic founder of OpenAI.
In “Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI,” award-winning investigative journalist and AI expert Karen Hao delivers an eye-opening dive deep into the world of artificial intelligence and an unflattering portrait of the man leading the charge. Drawing on insider accounts, Hao reveals a man described by colleagues and board members as “manipulative,” “deceptive,” and “unstable.”
Sam Altman, embraced as a Silicon Valley golden boy, curated his public image as a measured, earnest leader — positioning himself in contrast to the capricious and often inflammatory Elon Musk. Altman’s AI endeavor has been compared to The Manhattan Project, an analogy he embraces, as he reportedly likes to note that he shares a birthday with Robert Oppenheimer. The question is raised: like the atomic bomb, does AI represent a history-changing technological breakthrough or a technology that risks the existential demise of humanity?
Hao spends chapters on the impact of OpenAI and the other companies of this fast-growing sector which she likens to the European colonial empires. From underpaid laborers in Kenya to environmental tolls in Chile, she exposes the hidden human cost behind what fuels the technology.
Altman’s dramatic and frenzied ousting and reinstatement by OpenAI’s board in 2023 is a glimpse into the turmoil at the highest level of decision-makers who dictate the prospects of AI. Hao warns that the future of AI, and perhaps humanity, rests with a “small handful of fallible people” with oversized egos and immense power.
“Vera, or Faith”
From the bestselling author of “Our Country Friends,” comes “Vera, or Faith,” a poignant and complex family drama narrated by Vera, a precocious 10-year-old, growing up with a fractured family living in a broken America.
Set in a not-so-distant dystopian future, Gary Shteyngart’s latest novel successfully blends biting satire with humor and tender insights into human foibles. Vera, who is half-Jewish and half-Korean, is trying to keep her family together and find friendship, and is desperate to know more about her mysterious biological mother — who no one will talk about. With an eccentric Russian father, aloof New England stepmother, and blond half-brother, Vera struggles to understand her identity, and where she belongs in a progressively chaotic world. How far will she go to find all that she seeks?
“So Far Gone”
While I miss the glamour and sweep of the Italian coast in Jess Walter’s best-selling “Beautiful Ruins,” his latest novel, “So Far Gone,” still keeps readers entertained with his witty cinematic style. This brash, quirky tale follows reclusive journalist Rhys Kinnick, who’s been living off the grid in northeastern Washington ever since he punched his conspiracy theorist son-in-law in the mouth at Thanksgiving dinner.
For 20 years, Rhys has fled to the woods and lived without internet or phone, but he’s reluctantly drawn back into the world to search for his missing daughter, and rescue his two grandchildren who are taken by a dangerous militia.
Walter fills the novel with a rollicking cast of sharply drawn characters: precocious kids, a no-nonsense ex-girlfriend, a bombastic ex-cop, a Salish Indian ex-buddy, and a host of radicalized Christian survivalists. “So Far Gone” unfolds as a story exploring both modern and timeless themes, the dangers of a divided nation, gun violence, fractured families, flawed relationships, and the hope for redemption — especially relevant in these times — found in coming together when it matters most.
