Richard Powers is now firmly cemented as my favorite contemporary writer (at least this month!). Prisoner's Dilemma is brilliant — a heartbreaking semiautobiographical (aren't all his novels?!) family study.

Warning: spoilers follow! Prisoner's Dilemma tells the story of a family of six — headed by an ailing father. The story is interspersed with long "flashbacks", which we late in the novel learn are recorded transcripts of the father (Eddie Hobson) speaking (creating his idyllic "Hobstown"). Through these interludes, we are presented with a very dark vision of the United States during World War II, in particular the insidious imprisonment of Americans of Japanese ancestry. Powers repeatedly considers possible solutions to the Prisoner's Dilemma, and it becomes apparent that in a society like ours, there is no easy solution — one vote matters only when it is exercised by everyone. The novel spirals with increasing speed to Eddie's death, where Powers inserts a one page eulogy to his own father, treading a dangerous line between ripping out heartstrings and committing a literary faux pas. Prisoner's Dilemma is one of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read — and one of the best.