With pitch perfect precision, Richard Powers tells the story of a musician journeying into his past as he desperately flees the present.

One evening, 70-year old avant-garde composer Peter Els opens his front door to find the police on his doorstep. His home microbiology lab - the latest experiment in his lifelong attempt to discover musical patterns in DNA strands - has come to the attention of Homeland Security. Panicked by the raid, Els flees and turns fugitive. In response, the government promises a terrified nation that the ‘Bioterrorist Bach’ will be found and brought to trial.

Longlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2014
Published by
Atlantic
Publication date
Richard Powers

Richard Powers

About the Author

Richard Powers is the multi-award-winning American author of 13 novels, who has now been shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize.
More about Richard Powers

Other nominated books by Richard Powers

Bewilderment
The Overstory