Plowing the Dark

<p><b>''Part of the joy of reading Powers over the years has been his capacity for revelation'' Colson Whitehead</b><br><br>On the west coast of America, virtual reality researchers race to complete the Cavern, a plain white room that can become a jungle, a painting or a vast Byzantine cathedral. Adie Klarpol, a disillusioned artist, is fascinated by this cutting-edge technology.<br><br>In a war-torn city on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, an American teacher - Taimur Martin - is held hostage, chained to a radiator in an empty white room.<br><br>What can possibly join two such remote places? Only the shared imagination, a room that these two people unwittingly build in common...<br><br><b>''Spectacular... Riveting'' <i>New York Times</i></b></p>