Bewilderment by Richard Powers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From the Pulitzer-prize winning author of "The Overstory," "Bewilderment" follows Theo Byrne, an astrobiologist, and his sensitive 9-year old son, Robin, who has always been wildly curious about the natural world. After losing his wife and Robin's mother, Theo struggles to keep Robin in school after he displays violent outbursts and possible signs of neurodiversity. The school wants to medicate Robin but Theo desperately wants to try a natural remedy which leads him to an experimental treatment called Decoded Neurofeedback. Will this experiment work? Can Robin learn the coping skills necessary to function? As a father, this was truly an emotional rollercoaster reading about Theo's and Robin's triumphs and mistakes. It was stunningly beautiful and utterly devastating at the same time. Richard Powers, as he does in many of his other works, asks difficult questions about the state of our natural world and our place within it.

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