"Confusion" by: Richard Powers Publisher: CITIC Press

Introduction
Our world is made meaningful by the courage to ask questions
★ A new masterpiece by Richard Powers, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and one of the most important and admirable writers emerging in the American literary world in the "post-Pynchon era"
★ Directly pointing to the fate of the questioner, a contemporary version of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"
★ A heartbreaking chronicle of mourning, a gentle and long journey through the ages
★ Through the heartbreak of a family, the book reflects the shaky human world and reveals the difficult predicament of the current era with the innocent words and deeds of children.
★ In the same vein as Flowers for Algernon, it has the same purpose as A Sand County Almanac. It is as innocent and meaningful as The Little Prince, but with a tour of foreign civilizations like Interstellar.
★Everyone is broken.Everyone knows what's happening.But we all look away.
★ Shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize and longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award
★ 2021 New York Times Book of the Year, Oprah's Book Club's annual pick, 2021 Book of the Year by National Public Radio, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, Library Journal and many other media
=Celebrity Recommendation=
It is impossible for Powers to write an uninteresting book. --Margaret Atwood
Richard Powers is one of the greatest living American writers. I am in awe of his talent. —Oprah Winfrey
For me, the astrobiology and neuroscience of Perplexity—two fields undergoing rapid and dramatic revolutions—are actually pathways into older, more intimate human passions. Beneath the vast technological and intellectual achievements of these pursuits lie primal questions of the human heart… All of these questions form the enduring core of fiction. Perplexity is Plato’s allegory of the cave. I have just updated that allegory for the age of pandemics, exoplanets, and mass extinctions. —Richard Powers
=Media Recommendation=
One of our most gifted writers. —The New Yorker
Powers wants to challenge our inherent anthropocentrism, both in literature and in the way we live. —The New York Times
"Confusion" is impressive in its scientific precision, but no less emotionally rich or intellectually compelling. - The Guardian
Astonishing... A must-read novel... Urgent and profound, it takes readers on a unique journey that will make them question everything we do to our only planet. — Associated Press
One of America's most ambitious and imaginative novelists... In a year marked by unprecedented droughts, fires and floods around the world, Confused couldn't be more timely... Whether it's about family or nature, this heartbreaking story warns us not to take anything for granted. -The Boston Globe
A tearjerker... the most moving and inspiring of all Powers' books. --The New Republic
A former programmer, Bowles's novels are rich in ideas, placing grand scientific concepts in everyday experience. For him, the environmental crisis means that we must not only share the common suffering of humanity, but also the suffering of other life forms threatened by our mismanagement of the earth... Bowles's unfettered imagination extends the resonance circle from lichens to nebulae with his finely crafted style. - Financial Times
=Introduction=
Once upon a time, there was a planet that could not find the location of its companions. It died of loneliness.
Hurricane blows city into sea
Cruise ship explodes near St. John's, Antigua
A universal election that was arbitrarily suspended and then hastily restarted
The controversial decoding neurofeedback experiment
Mad cow disease was transmitted to humans from cattle
$12 billion 'next-generation' space telescope project axed for no apparent reason
…
Astrobiologist Theo and his son Robin, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, live here.
In the face of the fundamental brokenness of the world, more empathy means deeper pain.
The question isn't why Robin has deteriorated again.
The question is why the rest of us remain so insanely optimistic.
Having seen stars that no one else on Earth could see, and having experienced change and time, reincarnation and diversity, Robin was the only one, the poor little fellow, who could ask that question - why?
Face confusion with action, with courage and with life.