Bewilderment

A Novel

By: Richard Powers

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB SELECTION

Shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize
Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction

A heartrending new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory.

I never believed the diagnoses the doctors settled on my son. When a condition gets three different names over as many decades, when it goes from non-existent to the country's most commonly diagnosed childhood disorder in one generation, when two different physicians want to prescribe three different medications, there's something wrong....

Theo Byrne is a promising young astrobiologist who has found a way to search for life on other planets dozens of light years away. He is also the widowed father of a most unusual nine-year-old. His son, Robin, is funny, loving, and filled with plans. He thinks and feels deeply, adores animals, and can spend hours painting elaborate pictures. He is also on the verge of being expelled from third grade for smashing his friend's face with a metal thermos.

What can a father do, when the only solution offered to his rare and troubled boy is to put him on psychoactive drugs? What can he say when his boy comes to him wanting an explanation for a world that is clearly in love with its own destruction? The only thing for it is to take the boy to other planets, even while fostering his son's desperate campaign to help save this one.

"Richard Powers is one of our country’s greatest living writers. He composes some of the most beautiful sentences I’ve ever read. I’m in awe of his talent." —Oprah Winfrey

Depressing and overated

I struggled with this book, I wanted to like it, the accolades were all there, the author sounded interesting, but if you use books as a form of escapism, I urge you to steer clear of this one. The characters and reality were too genuine. It is a great book but I did not enjoy it. Does that make sense?

Excellent!

I loved this book, so moving, and inspiring. the performance was excellent and I'll definitely be listening more from this author.

I absolutely love this story

The story was beautiful with so many complex layers. I connected with it over my love of astronomy, and my passion for learning. This will be one of the top books I’ll recommend.

A book for people who care

You won’t forget it. Narration also perfect for the story. A lot to think about in quiet moments.

It brought tears to my eyes.

The author of "The Overstory" has done it again, but in a completely different way and style. This is a wonderful book on several levels. The language is beautiful, simply done (befitting the 7 year old protagonist), but powerful. Young Robin grabbed me by the throat in much the same way as he grabs his widowed dad. This story gives and homage to "Flowers for Algernon" a classic 1960s short story and then novel. It's about what happens when science works with mentally challenged individuals for both good and not-so-good. It's a beautiful story. And It may bring tears to your own eyes. I am a 75 year old man, and I don't cry often, but this book did it to me. Wonderfully narrated. Listen to it!