In his latest book, Bewilderment, the celebrated novelist Richard Powers explores an intense father-son relationship on an ailing planet. As wildfires rage and floodwaters rise, widower Theo and his unusual young child, Robin, attempt to understand why so little is being done to stop the accelerating effects of climate change. Powers’s previous novel, The Overstory, won a Pulitzer Prize, and now Bewilderment has been longlisted for the National Book Award and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It’s also the inaugural pick for the relaunch of the Outside Book Club, and we’ve been discussing the book for the last month in our Facebook group (which we encourage you to join). Outside correspondent Eva Holland, who reviewed Bewilderment for Outside, reached Powers by phone to talk about how the novel came to be, why its message matters so much, and how he thought up the book’s dramatic ending.