Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance: Richard Powers

In the spring of 1914, renowned German photographer August Sander takes a photograph of three young men on their way to a country dance. This haunting image, capturing the last moments of innocence on the brink of World War I, provides the central focus of Richard Powers` brilliant and compelling first novel. As the fate of the three farmers is chronicled, two contemporary stories unfold. In one, a chance museum-goer becomes obsessed with the photo; and in the other, a young technical writer in Boston discovers he has a personal connection to it. The three stories connect in an entirely surprising way, describing nothing less than the history of a century of brutality and progress.