Bewilderment
Paperback Published on: 04/10/2022
RRP Recommended Retail Price: £9.99
Price: £5.00Save £4.99 (50%)
Bookseller Reviews
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"Nobody else is protesting anything? Everyone in the state is perfectly happy with everything just the way it is?"
Bewilderment follows the life of a father (Theo) and son (Robin). The father is an astrobiologist, who endlessly dreams up worlds with extraordinary but ve... READ MORE
Breathtakingly Beautiful and Achingly Sad
This is like a cross between Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon and a Ted talk by Greta Thunberg. Don't say I haven't warned you.
It's devastating. Absolu... READ MORE
Wonderment
A cosmic amount of thought and love have gone into this book, and it shines because of it. There are passages within of pure beauty, and such tender writin... READ MORE
What a power house!
It’s been a while since I cried over a book.
Devoured this in 4 bus rides, two lunch breaks and almost a full day in bed. I’m broken, but kintsugi-ed b... READ MORE
Bewildering in its depth and beauty
It’s been a while since I cried over a book.
Devoured this in 4 bus rides, two lunch breaks and almost a full day in bed. I’m broken, but kintsugi-ed b... READ MORE
Synopsis
Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for October 2022
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2021
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, while all the while fostering his son's desperate campaign to help save this one.
Publisher information
- Publisher: Vintage Publishing
- ISBN: 9781529115253
- Number of pages: 336
- Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 20 mm
- Weight: 234g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
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Haunting
Powers' last book, 'The Overstory' is a favourite of mine. 'Bewilderment' doesn't share its sweeping grandeur, but I sense intentionality in the contrast b... READ MORE
A novel for our time
Powers' highly distinctive voice presents this 'state of the planet' novel in beautiful tones that cannot fail to move the reader. The central relationship... READ MORE
Bewilderment
My first Richard Powers novel and it certainly won’t be the last. I thought it beautifully structured and the right mix of science and story. Astrobiolog... READ MORE
A stunning read. My tip for a well deserved Booker Prize!
This is an extraordinary and powerful novel, wrapping themes from the astronomical mapping of the universe and the inner life of a disturbed nine-year old ... READ MORE
A moving and deeply affecting story.
This is a moving and deeply affecting story of love, loss and how a child who is not the same as other children goes about finding his place in the world. ... READ MORE
Original and Very Enjoyable - Highly Recommended
A fascinating story about an astrobiologist whose work involves searching for exoplanets outside our solar system that could support life. He is also a wid... READ MORE
Masterful and heartbreaking
A book of unequivocal mastery. My first Richard Powers novel and it will not be the last. From the outset I was captured, a book that took me both emotiona... READ MORE
Beautiful
I once met Richard Powers at a book reading/signing for The Overstory in London. We had a few minutes to talk and we talked about our mutual love for natur... READ MORE
Sad, funny and real - so good
Richard Powers is a writer who tugs you into his narrative so that you daren't pull yourself away - I read this in two sittings in a weekend, tied so stron... READ MORE
Intense and extraordinary
This is a most intense, extraordinary book about a nine year old boy who is desperate to save the planet. His mother has died and his father is struggling... READ MORE
Moving and full of heart
Such a moving book. Very well written. I enjoyed exploring the love between a father and son, alongside the love for nature. There is a fear in both, mista... READ MORE
Wonderful
Powers' last book, 'The Overstory' is a favourite of mine. 'Bewilderment' doesn't share its sweeping grandeur, but I sense intentionality in the contrast b... READ MORE
A father-son relationship, parenting, grief and nature
How much would you do for your child?
Bewilderment is a very emotional story of a single father, Theo and his nine-year-old son, Robin. Theo's wife died i... READ MORE
A luminous and powerful read
Bewilderment by Richard Powers is a book of staggering depth and emotion. It follows young widower Theo Byrne an astrobiologist who is searching for life o... READ MORE
An incredible thought provoking read
The Overstory was a phenomenal book that still has me thinking some years later; now Bewilderment! How to describe this book is not straightforward. This ... READ MORE
A transformative and revealing read
A singularly strange and wonderful book, a tragic story of loss on a personal and also a human scale.
Theo is a scientist used to a methodical approach a... READ MORE
Empathy V Entropy
Perhaps Richard Powers' most readable novel to date, Bewilderment draws broadly convincing parallels between the unknowability of humans and the unmappable... READ MORE
Profoundly moving!
My favorite part of the day is when I wake up at 6 a.m., dawdle onto my balcony with sleepy eyes, and watch the world come to life. The newspaper boy and t... READ MORE
A powerful statement about the harsh world surrounding the special needs family
Firstly, thank you for selecting me for an early copy of this wonderful book - I got through it in under a week. Nonetheless, reading through the other rev... READ MORE
Intriguing and memorable
The Overstory was a phenomenal book that still has me thinking some years later; now Bewilderment! How to describe this book is not straightforward. This ... READ MORE
A beautiful, if discomforting read
Astrobiologist Theo Byrne spends his time looking for life on other planets but is most concerned about the welfare of his nine-year-old son, Robin. Since ... READ MORE
Wise. Worldly. Wonderful.
Bewilderment' was one of the top 3 books I wanted to read in 2021 and I was beyond thrilled to be approved to read an ARC thanks to NetGalley.
I was blow... READ MORE
Not my cup of tea!
I didn't like it and I found it really boring, the last 150 pages I just skimmed to the end- way too shallow for me