You get used to everything, including life after the climate catastrophe. This is how you could paraphrase the message of Ian McEwan’s new novel: The weather is bad, but the mood is good. Or at least in 2119 people are starting to look forward again. The warming of the atmosphere in the first half of the 21st century led to massive droughts and floods. But the temperature subsequently fell again, thanks to various nuclear wars – the first of which was in the Middle East – and the nuclear winters that broke out afterwards. All in all, a few billion people have died, but there are still a few billion people alive. The former United States of America is ruled by rival warlords, and Germany was annexed by the Great Russian Empire decades ago. At least the English and the Scottish are doing well. After massive floods, Great Britain has become an archipelago, but now people are chugging back and forth on boats between the small islands and have time for the finer things in life again.