THE TIME OF OUR SINGING

New York, New York, U.S.A. : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. New/New. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Signed by author on his personal, laid-in (not affixed) bookplate in black fountain ink. (Author famously does not sign the books themselves.) On Easter day, 1939, at Marian Anderson's epochal concert on the Washington Mall, David Strom, a German Jewish émigré scientist, meets Delia Daley, a young Philadelphia Negro studying to be a singer. Their mutual love of music draws them together, and--against all odds and better judgment--they marry. They vow to raise their children beyond time, beyond identity, steeped in song. But their three children must survive America's brutal here and now. Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth grow up during the Civil Rights era, come of age in the violent 1960s, and live out adulthood in the racially retrenched late century. Jonah, the eldest, "whose voice could make heads of state repent," follows a life in his parents' beloved classical music. Ruth, the youngest, chooses a militant activism and repudiates the white culture her brother represents. Joseph, the middle child and the narrator of this generational tale, struggles to remain connected to them both. THE TIME OF OUR SINGING is a story of self-invention, allegiance, race, cultural ownership, the compromised power of music, and the tangled loops of time that rewrite all belonging. Richard Powers other novels include THREE FARMERS ON THEIR WAY TO A DANCE, PRISONER'S DILEMMA, THE GOLD BUG VARIATIONS, PLOWING THE DARK, OPERATION WANDERING SOUL (a nominated finalist for the 1993 National Book Award for F iction) and ORFEO. GALATEA 2.2 was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award. His novel, THE ECHO MAKER, won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. THE TIME OF OUR SINGING was a New York Times Notable Book for 2003, was widely listed that year as a Best Book by a half-dozen other major U.S. newspapers, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award,. Mint, new, unread, first edition, first printing, in new, mylar-protected dust jacket. *Please note this this book will be packed with care and ships in a box to insure arrival in pristine condition. [Not remainder-marked or price-clipped] BUND