Richard Powers 
Plowing the Dark 

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory and Bewilderment, a kaleidoscopic novel about the wild freedom of the imagination.
 »Part of the joy of reading Powers over the years has been his capacity for revelation » Colson Whitehead

On the west coast of America, virtual reality researchers race to complete the Cavern, a plain white room that can become a jungle, a painting or a vast Byzantine cathedral. Adie Klarpol, a disillusioned artist, is fascinated by this cutting-edge technology.
In a war-torn city on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, an American teacher – Taimur Martin – is held hostage, chained to a radiator in an empty white room.
What can possibly join two such remote places? Only the shared imagination, a room that these two people unwittingly build in common…
 »Spectacular… Riveting » New York Times