Bewilderment

Richard Powers, Heinemann, £18.99

Power’s Booker shortlisted novel is a masterfully curated story of love, grief and loneliness.

It follows astrobiologist Theo who looks for extraterrestrial life. Newly widowed, he is trying to protect his nine-year-old son, who has Asperger’s, and signs him up for an experimental therapy using recordings of his dead mother’s brain activity to help stabilise his emotions.

This read is brutal and heart-warming, intimate and profound.