THE SHINING INTELLIGENCE, suave prose and conceptual ingenuity of Richard Powers’s work consistently earn him admiring reviews, but his low profile and potentially off-putting reputation as a ‘novelist of ideas’ have hitherto meant that his books are less widely read than those of noisier authors. With his astonishing eighth novel, far more ambitious and populous than its predecessors, he seizes his rightful place in the front rank of contemporary American writers.

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