Richard Powers’ newest, Bewilderment, is a book I got so emotionally invested in that I truly didn't know what to do with myself after finishing it. I might even love it more than The Overstory, though that one demands a reread.

The point of view is Theo’s. He’s an astrobiologist whose work focuses on finding life outside of Earth and who invents planets as a bedtime story for his nine year old son Robbie. The mother of the family, a passionate animal rights advocate, passed away two years ago and since then, Robbie has struggled to control his emotions. Suspicious towards the recommended psychoactive drugs, Theo turns to a new kind of mental health treatment: teaching his son’s brain new patterns through AI technologies. Patterns from average human brains and eventually, patterns from the brain of his dead mother.

In the background, the world is in chaos. It’s a slightly exaggerated version of what we’re living through right now. As Theo thinks, “only pure bewilderment kept us from civil war”. To his son, the devastation of wildlife is the crisis he feels most deeply. So deeply, that he turns to different forms of activism in his mother’s footsteps.

The book features fascinating, almost scifi-like technologies, but for me the definite highlight is Robbie. Reading about his enthusiasm for the natural world and at the same time, despair for its dim future. I love how the father-son relationship was described and it always makes me happy to encounter characters that are vegan! All in all, I can’t help but give this five stars, though I found the uncriticized anti-drug attitude a little concerning.

“They share a lot, astronomy and childhood. Both are voyages across huge distances. Both search for facts beyond their grasp. Both theorize wildly and let possibilities multiply without limits. Both are humbled every few weeks. Both operate out of ignorance. Both are mystified by time. Both are forever starting out.”