Richard Powers

The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of--and paean to--the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers's twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours--vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A Novel

The Overstory

Jonah, Joseph and Ruth are the children of mixed-race parents determined to protect them from the grinding effects of race. Hothouse children, they are all musically talented, but they cannot be protected from the world for long. Jonah becomes a successful young tenor, but the world of opera can only accept him as a 'brilliant Negro singer'; Joseph, our narrator, becomes a pianist and devotes his talents to the service of his brother's; Ruth turns her back on classical music ('white music') and disappears, on the run with her black husband under suspicion of being a Black Panther. Powers brilliantly and devastatingly delineates the tragedy of race in America, as it unfolds from the Civil Rights movement to Rodney King and Louis Farrakhan, through the lives and choices of one family, caught on the cusp of identities.

The Time of Our Singing

Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.

Playground

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021 AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB SELECTION The breathtaking new novel from the million-copy bestselling author of The Overstory. 'Heart-rending' Oprah Winfrey Theo Byrne is a promising young scientist 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. But after a violent outburst from Robin at school, the strength of their close bond will be tested to its limits... What can a father do, when those around him refuse to understand his rare and troubled child? And how can he reveal to his boy the truth about our beautiful, bewildered world? 'The love between son and father has an emotional truth that wrings the heart' Guardian 'This book had me in tears' Monique Roffey 'Refreshing, original and moving' Evening Standard 'It is impossible to deny the importance of Powers's message' Sunday Times

Bewilderment

Listowieść

Une éco-fiction haletante qui montre le lien entre l'Homme et la nature en s'appuyant sur le drame écologique que la société actuelle, trop connectée au cyberworld, refuse de voir. Dans ce nouveau roman, Richard Powers embrasse un sujet aussi vaste que le monde : celui de la nature et de nos liens avec elle. Les destins des protagonistes de ce récit, un psychologue, un étudiant, un concepteur de jeux électroniques, un photographe amateur, une botaniste visionnaire, s'entrelacent autour de ce qui est peut-être le premier et le dernier mystère du monde : la communication entre les arbres. Au fil d'une éco-fiction aux dimensions symphoniques, avec au centre du récit un séquoia menacé de destruction, Richard Powers explore ici le drame écologique et notre lente noyade dans le cyber-world, et nous rappelle que sans la nature notre culture n'est que ruine de l'âme.

L'arbre-monde

Teresa Lanero Ladrón de Guevara

El clamor de los bosques

"The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of--and paean to--the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers's twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours--fast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe."--

Égig érő történet

"Tout commence en 1939, lorsque Delia Daley et David Strom se rencontrent à un concert de Marian Anderson. Peut-on alors imaginer qu'une jeune femme noire épouse un juif allemand fuyant le nazisme? Et pourtant ... Leur passion pour la musique l'emporte sur les conventions et offre à leur amour un sanctuaire de paix où, loin des hurlements du monde et de ses vicissitudes, ils élèvent leurs trois enfants. Chacun d'eux cherche sa voix dans la grande cacophonie américaine, inventant son destin en marge des lieux communs : Jonah embrasse une prometteuse carrière de ténor, Ruth, la cadette, lutte aux côtés des Black Panthers, tandis que Joseph essaye, coûte que coûte, de préserver l'harmonie familiale. Peuplé de personnages d'une humanité rare, 'Le temps où nous chantions' couvre un demi-siècle d'histoire américaine, nous offrant, au passage, des pages inoubliables sur la musique." [Source : 4e de couv.]

Le temps où nous chantions

romanas

Medžių istorija

When Russell Stone becomes the teacher of a young Algerian woman with a disturbingly luminous presence, he is both entranced and troubled. How can this refugee from terror radiate such bliss? Is it possible to be so open and alive without coming to serious harm? Soon, Thassa's joyful personality comes to the attention of the notorious geneticist and advocate for genomic enhancement, Thomas Kurton, whose research has enabled him to announce his discovery of the genetic underpinnings of happiness. Thassa's congenital optimism is severely tested by the growing media circus. Devoured by the public as a living prophecy, her genetic secret will transform both Russell and Kurton, as well as the world at large. Generosity is fast, funny and finally magical. In his most exuberant and exhilaratingly brilliant book yet, Richard Powers asks his readers to consider the big questions facing humankind as it learns of the genetic map underlying every aspect of our existence

Generosity

Matt Haig

Barack Obama

Kristin Hannah

Brit Bennett

Anna North

Martha Nibley Beck

Stacey Abrams

Octavia Butler

Maggie O'Farrell

Marie Benedict

Sarah Pearse

Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Lauren Fox

Mateo Askaripour

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Naima Coster

Jason Mott

Maggie Shipstead

Lisa Harding

Jon Meacham

Patricia Engel

Amor Towles

Megan E. Abbott

Maria Dahvana Headley

Marilynne Robinson

Laura Dave

Ethan Michaeli

Pip Williams

María Amparo Escandón

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

Andrea Bartz

Chibundu Onuzo

Nathan Harris

Daina Ramey Berry

Sara Nović

Miranda Cowley Heller

Tia Williams

Ellery Lloyd

Flynn Berry

Qian Julie Wang

Cicely Tyson

Nina de Gramont

Marissa Stapley

Jessamine Chan

Charmaine Wilkerson

Tara M. Stringfellow

Naomi Krupitsky

Viola Davis

Lee Cole

Kali N. Gross

Shelby Van Pelt

Thrity N. Umrigar

Kamala D. Harris

The Book Club Kindles contain selections from the library's Table Talk and Cover to Cover Book Clubs as well as celebrity book club picks from Oprah Winfrey, Jenna Bush Hager, and Reese Witherspoon.

Book Club

Kindle

Plowing the Dark

Operation Wandering Soul

Seventy-year old avant-garde composer Peter Els opens the door one evening to find the police outside. His DIY microbiology lab has come to the attention of Homeland Security. Panicked by the raid on his house, Els flees and turns fugitive, waiting for the evidence to clear him and for the alarm surrounding his activities to blow over. But alarm turns to national hysteria. As Els feels the noose around him tighten, he embarks on a cross-country trip to visit, one last time, the people in his past who have most shaped his failed musical journey.

Orfeo

Intrigued by an Algerian woman whose blissful demeanor contrasts with the horrific environment of her home country, Chicago teacher Russell Stone brings her to the attention of others who become equally entranced.

An Enhancement

Deslumbramento é uma narrativa densa em que o autor Richard Powers apresenta um romance íntimo e comovente. Ao retratar pai e filho em busca de refúgio num mundo em crise, este é um livro poderoso que nos leva a questionar o lugar que ocupamos no universo e a reconsiderar nossa relação com a natureza. No cerne desta história, ressoa a inquietante (e urgente) indagação: como podemos contar aos nossos filhos a verdade sobre o futuro do planeta?

Deslumbramento

Richard Powers

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