Novelist Richard Powers' new book Bewilderment focuses on the loss of what's important to us, like a mother. But in this instance, the loss of the environment.SHAWN POYNTER/The New York Times News Service
Oprah Winfrey’s new book club pick is Richard Powers’ Bewilderment, his first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Overstory” and already on the fiction longlist for the National Book Awards.
“My next selection is from one of our country’s greatest living writers, Richard Powers, who writes some of the most beautiful sentences I’ve ever read,” Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday.
The 64-year-old Powers, whose other books include “Orfeo” and “The Echo Maker,” winner of the National Book Award in 2006, said in a statement that he was “honoured and moved to be named an ‘Oprah Book Club’ selection.”
”‘Bewildered’ doesn’t begin to describe it,” he added. “This is among the most rewarding recognitions I’ve received over my 40-year career.”
Winfrey’s interview with Powers will air Oct. 22 on Apple TV Plus. Powers is known for complex narratives that often centre on science, technology and the environment. Bewilderment, published last week, tells of a widowed astrobiologist and his struggles to raise his 9-year-old son.
The announcement Tuesday comes just over a month since Winfrey’s previous book club choice: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ debut novel “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois.”
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