Editions

The Gold Bug Variations

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9781784709723

  • Length: 688  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 34mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 495g

  • RRP: £10.99

The Gold Bug Variations

An enthralling story about desire, new love and the mysteries of science from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory

Stuart Ressler, a brilliant biologist, sets out in 1957 to crack the genetic code. His efforts are sidetracked by other, more intractable codes – social, moral, musical, spiritual – and he falls in love with a member of his research team.

Years later, another young man and woman team up to investigate a different mystery – why did the eminently promising Ressler suddenly disappear from the world of science?

Strand by strand, these two love stories twist about each other in a double helix of desire.

‘A love story of charm and substance, brimming over with ideas, yet anchored in emotional truth’ Sunday Telegraph

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9781784709723

  • Length: 688  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 34mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 495g

  • RRP: £10.99

Reviews

  • A love story of charm and substance, brimming over with ideas, yet anchored in emotional truth. The plot is as labyrinthine as any by Umberto Eco... Extremely witty... Dip into this book at random and the chances are it will sit up and bite you like a rattlesnake

    Sunday Telegraph

  • The most lavishly ambitious American novel since Gravity's Rainbow... An outright marvel

    Washington Post

  • The Gold Bug Variations has everything... Stunning... Almost every sentence is a heroic tour de force... The joy to be taken in reading the book is, like the pleasure of studying crystal multiplication, in seeing a pattern swarm mosaically over everything, watching a stencil laid over life

    New York Times

  • One of the best writers working now

    Audrey Niffenegger

  • Powers has triumphantly restored...the philosophical novel

    Observer

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Richard Powers

Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. His most recent book, The Overstory, won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lives in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Richard Powers

Read more

/content/dam/prh/articles/company/Manbooker-2018-Promo.png

News

Daisy Johnson, Rachel Kushner and Richard Powers shortlisted for Man Booker Prize 2018

Three Penguin Random House books have made it onto the shortlist for the 2018 Man Booker Prize; making up half of the six-strong list.
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2019/february/vintage-article-promo-safe-area-Overstory.jpg

Extracts

The Overstory by Richard Powers

'That’s the trouble with people, their root problem. Life runs alongside them, unseen.' Read an extract from Richard Powers’ monumental novel, The Overstory.

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience. For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.