Slate Book Review is running my review of Richard Powers’s latest novel, Orfeo. 

But mainly, over his career Powers has shown himself to be a musician with ever-changing time signatures, a time traveler who doesn’t see much value in keeping time—probably because he understands that time can’t keep us. In the face of music, for Els in Orfeo, “Time turns to nothing.” And if we allow ourselves to listen, really listen, Powers seems to say, we’ll be left, too, like Els, beyond time—and with swelling souls, beyond ourselves. Each of us, with luck, a little infinity.