Richard Powers' 'Orfeo' explores the intersection of music, science

"Orfeo," by novelist Richard Powers, follows an aging professor caught up in the worlds of science, music and national security.

Powers finds rich and myriad ways to describe what it means to be lifted up and enriched by music.

Powers is a National Book Award winner and author of "Echomaker" and "Generosity."

LEARN MORE ABOUT 'ORFEO':

• A Strange Composition: Classical Music Meets Bioterror In 'Orfeo'
Richard Powers' new novel, Orfeo, tells the story of an avant-garde classical music composer who finds himself dabbling in DNA. Like the Orpheus myth that inspired the book's name, this story takes its hero, Peter Els, on a journey. He becomes a fugitive accused of bioterror, but what follows is also a walk back into the recesses of his own memory told through the music and people he's loved and lost.(NPR)

• Orfeo, by Richard Powers
"Orfeo" is hardly a title that sells itself, but Orpheus, the celebrated musician of Greek mythology, is the perfect motif for this fascinating novel about the allure and power of music. (Washington Post)