Like a lot of Richard Powers novels, this one has a lot going on. It’s not even so much that, as he’s applying a narrative lens to many different things and then putting them into the novel. This novel like others of his, focuses on telling multiple threads and stories all together, tying them through a thematic lens more than a plot one.
So what’s our lens here? Specifically it’s “Operation Wandering Soul”, which was a propaganda program during the US-Vietnam War designed to cause enemy soldiers and supporters to defect away from combatant operations. It’s similar enough to this kind of psychological warfare of many conflicts. In this novel this mostly plays background role as our main lead, Robert Kraft explores his own place in the world as a pediatric surgeon at a hospital. He meets a young recent immigrant to the US, operates on her, and through a mistake causes her to potentially lose her leg. In addition to this he also explores his father’s past as part of the psy-ops soldiers who enacted Operation Wandering Soul.
The novel also explores the fable of the Pied Piper, Peter Pan, and follows a group of small children who are all ostensibly dying as they try to make sense of their short lives. Each piece of the novel explores lost children in this way, which are sacrificial to greater society in a kind of homo sacer way.