Bewilderment Reading Order

Bewilderment (2021) by Richard Powers is a quiet, devastating novel about a widowed astrobiologist named Theo Byrne and his nine-year-old son Robin — neurodivergent, intensely empathic, and struggling in a world that is running out of time. When Robin's behavior at school threatens to get him placed on medication, Theo instead enrolls him in an experimental neurofeedback study that trains Robin's brain patterns against recordings of his late mother's neural activity, with results that are extraordinary and ultimately unbearable. Set in a near-future United States where environmental destruction is accelerating and political will has collapsed, Bewilderment is also a novel about what it costs to pay attention to the world, and what is lost when we stop. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021.