Synopses & Reviews
Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations. The Soul of a New Machine is an essential chapter in the history of the machine that revolutionized the world in the twentieth century.
Review
"In The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder provides a factual accounting of this achievement, and anyone interested in the annals of American industry will find the story absorbing. But Mr. Kidder [...] has endowed the tale with such pace, texture and poetic implication that he has elevated it to a high level of narrative art." The New York Times
Review
"Twenty years ago, Tracy Kidder published the original nerd epic. The Soul of a New Machine made circuit boards seem cool and established a revolutionary notion: that there's art in the quest for the next big thing." Wired
Review
"Fascinating. . . . A surprisingly gripping account of people at work". The Wall Street Journal
Synopsis
A new trade paperback edition has been issued of a nonfiction modern classic--the Pulitzer Prize-winning work that, more than any other book, captures the essential spirit of the computer age.
About the Author
Tracy Kidder graduated from Harvard and studied at the University of Iowa. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, and many other literary prizes.
His books include The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, Old Friends, Home Town, Mountains Beyond Mountains, My Detachment, Strength in What Remains, and (with Richard Todd) Good Prose.
Kidder lives in Massachusetts and Maine.