Bewilderment

 
　　孩子們是未來的希望，我們卻把該如何繼續生存的難題丟給了他們⋯⋯
 
　　Theo Byrne是天體生物學界中，一個新起之秀，他發現了如何探測數十光年外星球上生命體的方法。而正當他致力於尋找外星生物時，他九歲的獨子Robin則對地球上瀕臨絕種的生物們，有著濃厚的興趣，就跟他兩年前因車禍過世的母親一樣。Robin很可愛、幽默、感受細膩，就跟媽媽一樣非常喜歡各種動物，常常花上數個小時，仔細地描繪動物們。然而，在媽媽Alyssa過世後，他的性情似乎也有所改變，開始易怒衝動，甚至差點在三年級時被退學，因為他在情緒控制不住之下，用保溫瓶去敲打同學。走訪不同心理醫師，卻得到了不同診斷結果、不同控制藥物，Theo不願借用這些精神藥物，而是找上了他在大學的同事，準備利用還在實驗階段的神經療法來為Robin擺脫這些情緒控制問題。
 
　　身為父親的Theo，要如何幫助Robin？而當兒子提出「這個充滿了愛的世界，為何正一步步走向毀滅？」的疑問時，他又該如何給出一個好的解釋？普立茲得主理查．鮑爾斯帶來他動人的最新大作，描述父子間永恆的愛，以及對我們生活的地球現況，一段段細膩又直接明瞭的側寫。

　　(文／博客來外文館)

　　A heart-rending new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning and The New York Times bestselling author of The Overstory.

　　Robbie is a 9-year old boy with Asperger's-like traits, a precocious intelligence, a prodigious memory and exquisitely tuned to loss.

　　A gifted young artist, he aims to draw all of the animals in danger of extinction. His father, Theo, is an astrobiologist, consumed with finding signs of life in the cosmos and raising Robbie alone after the tragic death of his wife, Aly. As Robbie's behaviour grows more unmanageable, Theo seeks out an experimental treatment conducted by Dr Martin Currier involving neurofeedback that enables Robbie to pattern his emotional responses on the recorded brainwave activity of his late mother. But as government funding is pulled from the study, Robbie suffers a precipitous decline with heart-breaking consequences.

　　With its soaring descriptions of the natural world, tantalising vision of life beyond it and the ferocious love of a father for his young son, Bewilderment marks Richard Powers' most emotionally powerful novel to date. At its heart is the question: What is the world, at once perilous and imperilled, we've left for our children to inhabit, and can Theo save Robbie from it?