Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance

The backlist of Richard Powers, one of America's most important novelists, moves to Atlantic Books. On the eve of World War One, three young men are captured by photographer August Sander. Looking at the camera, dressed in suits against a background of an empty field, they become an iconic image. But what happens to these men after the shutter falls and how is the story of an enduring image influenced by forgotten histories? A novel of obsession in the age of technology.

The story of an enduring image influenced by forgotten histories, and a novel of obsession in the age of technology.

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED BEWILDERMENT AND THE OVERSTORY
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Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
Special Citation, PEN Hemingway Award
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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.

'Nothing less than brilliant' John Updike