Orfeo
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cornerstone
Publishing:12th Jun '25
£9.99
This title is due to be published on 12th June, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014
'A magnificent and moving novel' LOS ANGELES TIMES
Seventy-year-old avant-garde composer Peter Els opens the door one evening to find the police on his doorstep. His home microbiology lab - where he is conducting the latest experiment in his lifelong attempt to find musical patterns in surprising places - has aroused the suspicions of Homeland Security.
Panicked by the raid, Els turns fugitive, earning him the moniker 'Bioterrorist Bach'. He hatches a daring plan to transform this disastrous collision with the security state into an unforgettable work of art that will reawaken its audience to the sounds all around it.
A gripping escape narrative filled with lyrical wonder, Orfeo is both a portrait of a creative, obsessive man, and a reflection on finding melodies in everyday life.
Extraordinary and confounding, mind-spinning and wonderful * Independent on Sunday *
Powers is prodigiously talented. besides being fearfully erudite, he writes lyrical prose, has a seductive sense of wonder and is an acute observer of social life * New York Times *
A virtuoso performance * Sunday Times *
A magnificent and moving novel * Los Angeles Times *
The best novel about classical music ... since Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus * Independent *
Orfeo has a galloping finale that is sweet, funny, sad and haunting all at once ... A formidably intelligent, ecstatically noisy novel * Guardian *
Extraordinary ... His evocations of music, let alone lost love, simply soar off the page ... Once again, Richard Powers proves himself to be one of our finest novelists * Newsday *
ISBN: 9781804951767
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 35mm
Weight: 500g
384 pages