Richard Powers, write with your feet on the ground with your head in the stars

Audio 29:00

American writer Richard Powers in studio at RFI (October 2021) © Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint / RFI

By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint

2 min

Born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1957, Richard Powers is the author of thirteen novels, including "Three Farmers Go to the Ball," "The Time We Sing," "Chamber of Echoes" (National Book 2006 Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist), “The World Tree” (2019 Pulitzer Prize winner and Man Booker Prize finalist).

Considered one of the greatest contemporary writers, he now lives on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.

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French cover of Richard Powers' novel © Actes Sud

"Since the death of his wife, Theo Byrne, an astrobiologist, has been raising Robin, their nine-year-old child alone. Endearing and sensitive, the young boy is passionate about animals that he can draw for hours. But he is also a subject. to fits of rage that left his father helpless.

To appease her, the latter takes her to camp in nature or to visit the cosmos.

Every evening, father and son together explore an exoplanet and try to unravel the mystery of the origin of life.

The return to "reality" is often brutal.

When Robin is excluded from school following a new crisis, his father is ordered to seek treatment.

To the discomfort and the peculiarity of the child, the doctors respond only with medication.

Refusing this option, Theo turns to a neurologist leading an experimental therapy worthy of a science fiction novel.

Through artificial intelligence, Robin will train to develop his empathy and control his emotions.

After a few sessions, the results are astounding.

Directing a father and his son in an America on the verge of political and climatic chaos, Richard Powers signs a masterful novel, brilliant with intelligence and rare emotional force, questioning our place in the universe and leading us to reconsider our links with living things. "

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