Was irritated by the style and this just felt like a worse version of Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations. Though it's deeply rooted in wildlife and nature, it ends up feeling overwritten and just not really going anywhere, downright preachy. A dissapointment.

richard power's previous book - the overstory is one of my favourite books of all time. hence, i went into this book with many expectations. and while i was happy that a lot of them were met, i felt like this book just wasn't for me. perhaps it was the time of when i read it or just not being attached to the characters and topics discussed in this book.

richard power's writing of course is still brilliant. and there were many lines that resonated with me. however, overall i felt like this book lacked something that i can't quite put my finger on.

From the Pulitzer-prize winning author of The Overstory, Richard Powers, comes this stunning novel with simply, gorgeous and thoughtful prose. Following the death of his wife, Theo Byrne, an astrobiologist, pursues a mission to discover life in space as he embraces single parenthood, raising his neurodiverse 9-year-old son, Robin. Robin has two sides to him: he's a kind, compassionate, caring boy with exquisite artistic abilities, painting pictures of endangered animals. He is also deeply disturbed and physically hurts a friend in third grade risking being expelled. He spirals into more and more despair. Theo, hoping to avoid psychoactive drugs, tests out a innovative neurofeedback treatment to help Robin regulate his emotions, using his mother's brain and mirroring her own brain pathways.

In the backdrop, Powers continues to immerse us in gorgeous scenes of the natural world and of perhaps a life beyond planet earth, drawing parallels to his parenting challenges and unconditional love for his son. Through the eyes of Robin, we see his frustration at humanity's lack of care towards the environment and its impact on the multitude of life and sophisticated eco-systems that are struggling to survive, shining a light on the value of all life on earth and the depths of human destruction.

With themes of climate change, animal extinction, compassion towards nature and the deep love and intimacy between parent and child, this is an inspiring yet eye-opening book on the world and environment around us, making us fall in love with our planet again and looking at it with a renewed sense of care, compassion and responsibility, if that is still possible.

It's not often - certainly not often enough - that we get a book focused on single fathers and their relationships with their sons. Bewilderment is one such book, telling the story of a single father at something of a loss with his son. He loves him deeply and wants the best for him in a world clearly at odds with his son's nature.

When an incident at school forces Theo to take action, he turns to an experimental neurofeedback treatment to help Robin learn to control his emotions. Rather than using psychoactive drugs, this treatment involves training him on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain.

The writing in this book is heartbreakingly beautiful. Theo is an astrobiologist and bonds with Robin over virtual voyages through the universe. While I sometimes found the science aspects of these passages difficult to follow, you can allow yourself to merely be swept along on the magnificent prose.

I also appreciated the focus on Theo and Robin's relationship. While I would have preferred a slightly more explicit stance on Robin's obvious neurodiversity, I enjoyed seeing a dad truly try to do his best to give his son a good life in a world that will not conform to any needs outside of the norm.

This is an epic, ambitious and stunning-

I loved The Overstory and I was worried that this would disappoint- but actually I loved it even more.

Richard Powers writes with such a distinctive style - he is able to bring fresh eyes to any situation. I felt like I was right there in the text with the characters and loved the scale and twists of the plot. Another haunting novel

As a mother of a child who needed medication to survive, but who died in 2017, I found the protagonist's dogged determination to resist medication his child clearly needed offensive in the extreme. It robbed me of all sympathy for his eventual and inevitable grief, and coloured my perception of the book as a whole. I also found the premise of transference highly improbable.
I am a big fan of The Overstory, but this one wasn't for me.

Excellent book - important, relevant and brilliantly written. Was slightly overshadowed by The Overstory but still great.

Even though I can see why so many readers enjoyed this book, it was just not for me. I couldnt get into the story , and the language didnt work for me either.

This was a very thought provoking book & I found it emotional, it was well written but overall it wasn’t really for me. I’m glad I read it but it left me really a bit awkward, maybe that just goes to show how well it was written.

⭐⭐⭐.5 - rounded down to a 3.

Theo Byrne is an astrobiologist in a near-future where the climate is slowly collapsing. In the wake of the loss of his wife, Aly, his world shrinks to the size of his research and his neurodivergent son, Robin. Refusing to get Robin a diagnosis and putting him on psychoactive drugs, Theo takes a stance against doctors and ends up participating in a new research study that’s supposed to help Robin manage his emotions.

The topic of Robin using scans of his mother's brain to learn to manage his own emotions had me hooked, and I found myself really caring for Robin's transformation. I found all the characters compelling and enjoyed reading about them. The thing that fell short for me was all the science stuff. A lot of explanations of space things felt unnecessary and weren’t explained in a way that made it easy to understand for someone who doesn't know anything about science. Apart from that, the writing had a nice flow and the short chapters were very beneficial in a just-one-more way.

The reading experience was rather enjoyable, until the the-world-is-going-to-end feeling got to be a bit too much for little, anxious me. I tend to read to forget about the real world and the struggles we face, and whilst I don’t mind reading apocalyptic books or nonfiction about similar topics, I wasn’t expecting this one to get heavy in that regard. I suppose that it’s a good thing that it made me question my behavior towards the environment, but it would have been nice if it ended on a more positive/hopeful note on that topic.

Overall, this was a good book (with a STUNNING cover) that I would recommend to people looking for books about loss going forward.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I confess that Bewilderment by Richard Powers made me a little melancholy. Bewilderment is on the Booker shortlist and has the heft of an important novel. It tells of Theo, an astrobiologist (a career that I perviously never imagined) widowed father to nine year old Robin. Robin sees the world differently to most others and that presents problems. Reading this at the very moment that my boys stepped out into the world was probably not the wisest move but a stunning book nevertheless!

It's only January but I believe this profoundly moving novel may be the best book I'll read this year. It should be on all the prize lists.
Theo and his son Robin are grieving the sudden death of Robin's mother and like most single parents Theo is losing the battle for a manageable work life balance. Robin's behavioural problems aren't helping - Robin has received three different diagnoses, autism, ADHD, and OCD. Theo is reluctant to put his son on psychoactive drugs and when an offer for Robin to participate in an experimental psychological trial to influence his brain patterns using those of his mother Allysa (recorded before her death), Theo jumps at the chance.
As Robin's naive idealism about the ecosystem and human rights issues meet his mother's passion and activism the reader is able to challenge their own perceptions. Society's willful blindness and the ineffectiveness of politicians are amongst the myriad subjects for bookclubs to discuss. Powers writes beautifully about nature and the joys of observing the natural world. Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

'Bewilderment' is a wonderfully evocative story that is in turns shocking, terrifying and very moving and occasionally funny. It is beautiful in its construction with the prose lucid and lyrical, particularly in the scientific descriptions. This is what science should be; warm, engaging, and even life affirming.
The science is wonderful, accurate and believable and when it moves to projections and hypotheses – and possibly even science fiction – it is firmly grounded in fact. Nothing in this book has been made up – it just may not have happened yet.
There are however, a few parts where the usually genuine (although blatant) discussion of environmental issues shifts towards hyperbole but in general it is terrifying in its believability.

The story is incredibly touching throughout, providing us with what feels like an honest view of the world as it is (or could be) from a ten year old’s eyes, and frequently that is heart-breaking. This is a story that is beautifully presented and is undoubtedly worth hearing but don’t expect a Hollywood story arc with the ending you were expecting, 'Bewilderment' is a lot more real than that.

Thank you for providing me with an arc. I found the novel to be overall quite thoughtful and thought-provoking! I wasn’t sure this would be as good as it was and it exceeded my expectations. I am definitely looking forward to what this author is going to put our next! Thank you for providing me with an arc. I found the novel to be overall quite thoughtful and thought-provoking! I wasn’t sure this would be as good as it was and it exceeded my expectations. I am definitely looking forward to what this author is going to put our next!

Theo is an astrobiologist in a near-future world where schools are banned from teaching evolution and science is even less in favour of the powers that be than ever despite the climate collapsing around them. In the wake of the loss of his wife, his world collapses to the size of his research and his son. Robin is 9 and the schools see him as a problem to be medicated, but Theo takes him in another direction.

I know astrobiology was a key part of the novel but I found it a bit much at times and wanted to skip over the details as I didn’t think they added to the story on the whole. What I did like and the stand out point was the relationship between father and son.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

Powers sets up the emotional difficulties of raising a son alone .. although I think there are probably fusty ideas lurking of what male inter-generational relationships are composed of .. but the writing and the smart interweaving of theme and characterizations in this world redeem that glitch well. I'm persuaded to look at his earlier works .. the book feels short (!) because I liked being in confident hands of an artist in words.

A lovely book about our relationship with the world around us and each other, as told by the widowed father of a son 'on the spectrum' . A book filled with love, pain, desperation, and parental fear. All the passages dealing with the feelings of parental helplessness struck a chord. Finished this the same day as watching the film Dont Look Up, which has a smililar message of characters knowing something that no one wants to hear, and then dismissed by the wider world and an uncaring government. Good book.

I thought this book was beautifully written and I loved Powers' previous novel 'The Overstory' however, 'Bewilderment' fell a bit short for me.

A beautifully written novel about a father and son relationship set in a strange dystopian background. Whilst I admired the writing and the warmth of the relationship it described, I struggled with the lack of plot, pace and character development and with the strange future world they seemed to inhabit. One of those books that I think will divide readers and I’m in the “not for me” camp.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review.

Heartbreaking portrait of a widower coming to terms with the death of his wife and bringing up his troubled son alone. Not an easy read, but very well written and absorbing.