Wow! eBook
Generosity Main Edition
Author(s): Richard Powers (Author)
- Publisher: Atlantic Books
- Publication Date: 1 Jan. 2010
- Edition: Main
- Language: English
- Print length: 304 pages
- ISBN-10: 9781848871250
- ISBN-13: 1848871252
Book Description
When Russell Stone becomes the teacher of a young Algerian woman with a disturbingly luminous presence, he is both entranced and troubled. How can this refugee from terror radiate such bliss? Is it possible to be so open and alive without coming to serious harm? Soon, Thassa’s joyful personality comes to the attention of the notorious geneticist and advocate for genomic enhancement, Thomas Kurton, whose research has enabled him to announce his discovery of the genetic underpinnings of happiness. Thassa’s congenital optimism is severely tested by the growing media circus. Devoured by the public as a living prophecy, her genetic secret will transform both Russell and Kurton, as well as the world at large.
Generosity Main Edition is Richard Powers’ most exuberant and exhilarating book yet.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Compulsive… Powers persists in an heroic attempt to be that mythical being, a modern Renaissance man, as at home in the language of science as in the laboratories of literature…[Generosity is] a meditation on the human condition. –Tim Adams, Observer
[Powers’] writing is smart, tender and wrenchingly anxious about the approaching era… Generosity is a bracingly intelligent fable about the choices that face us. –Herald
Powers is not afraid or unambitious when it comes to choosing his subject matter… Frequently insightful, provocative and witty. –Herald
Powers, whose previous novel, The Echo Maker won the National Book Award, has always been adept at exploring the problematic frontiers of contemporary science. Here, his acuity and satire are as sharp as ever, allowing him to deconstruct brilliantly the commercially charged world of genome mapping, where Brahmins are well on the way to patenting and controlling the stuff of our being… What really makes Generosity tick, however, are its characters, who are as multifaceted and alive as any Powers has ever created –Sunday Times
