Orfeo

"Richard Powers hits lots of high notes in this exuberantly intellectual road novel about a 70-year-old avant-garde composer obsessed with creating transcendent music via a far-fetched homegrown genetic engineering experiment aimed at instilling notes into bacterial cells. In paranoid, post-Sept. 11 America, Powers’ eccentric protagonist runs afoul of the law. Dubbed the “Biohacker Bach,” he goes on the lam, hopping on a “carousel of catastrophe” as he visits key turning points from his past."

"Just finished Richard Powers's brilliant Orfeo. Masterpiece."