Richard Powers: Author of "The Echo Maker" and "Orfeo"

Richard Powers, Professor, Stanford University; Author, The Echo Maker and Orfeo

In conversation with Adam Johnson, Author, The Orphan Master's Son; Winner, 2013 Pulitzer Prize and 2013 California Book Award for Fiction; Professor, Stanford University

The National Book Award–winning author of The Echo Maker delivers his most emotionally charged novel to date, inspired by the myth of Orpheus. In Orfeo, composer Peter Els opens the door one evening to find the police on his doorstep. His home microbiology lab, the latest step in the lifelong journey to find music in natural patterns, has aroused the suspicions of Homeland Security. As an Internet-fueled hysteria erupts, the now fugitive Els – the “Bioterrorist Bach” – pays a final visit to the people he loves. Through the help of his ex-wife, his daughter, and his longtime collaborator, Els hatches a plan to turn this disastrous collision with the security state into a work of art that will reawaken its audience to the sounds all around them.

Also know: Part of the Good Lit series, Underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation