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Playground: A Novel

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New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the 2024 Kirkus Prize Longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize As Seen on CBS Saturday Morning • A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • One of the Ten Best Books of 2024, according to the Washington Post and AARP • A Time Must-Read Book of 2024 • One of NPR's "Books We Love" for 2024 • An Economist, The New Yorker, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2024 • Selected as Fall 2024 "Fiction to Read" by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, People, and Parade A magisterial new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory and Bewilderment.Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company


Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 24, 2024


Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 400 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1324086033


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 31


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.48 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.4 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #7,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #9 in Political Fiction (Books) #62 in Friendship Fiction (Books) #221 in Literary Fiction (Books)


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Like poetry Beautifully written The situations and people engage feeling and deep thought
This is Richard Powers's BEST book yet. It is like being Immersed in the world of marine life--astonishing in its complexity, words GLOWING in their beauty. I "oohed" and "ahhed" my way through reading this, wanting to share Pages and Pages with friends! I Highly recommend this. The three main characters are Alive to the reader; they change and grow in front of our eyes. Problems are laid out with ramifications not easily solved. True to life, messy and surprising, intense, sad, life captured , growing like coral--a GREAT BOOK. To Read this enlarges the mind's grasp of reality. And what an ENDING!! I won't give it away! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2024 by Max Stockinger
    • An Excellent Story and Cautionary Tale
Format: Kindle
"Playground" is a very interesting story. And it's a story that's compelling throughout, though the book is not of the caliber of Powers' masterpiece, "The Overstory." Most people will find the book very powerful, and I almost did. I liked the story and found the book quite readable. The book spoke to many things I care about. But there were a few aspects that I found just a little too off-putting. The Todd character is the primary one. He *is* a spoiled brat but at no point in the story did I find that brattiness charming or agreeable, which the author tried very hard to make happen. I just couldn't see how Ina and Rafi regarded him as such a great friend. I'm also always skeptical of stories where incredible computer software and capabilities just quickly materialize out of whole cloth masterminded by a single person the way they do in this book. It just doesn't work that way. I also didn't buy the allure of Keane's software playground. The whole thing seemed kind of boring to me; I don't think it would be the online mecca portrayed in the book. There are parts of the story that *are* beautiful. Evie's story is chief among them. You marvel at her fearlessness and are saddened by the lack of connection she has with her family. The island of Makatea and the people living there is another. Their stories are poignant and very compelling. Rafi, Ina, and their family is a third. You ache for their happiness. Finally, there is the beauty of the ocean which Powers describes so wonderfully. The story moves along very quickly. (Though I didn't like that Todd's story was printed all in italics.). "Playground" is definitely worth a read especially if you care about Earth's oceans. Recommended. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2025 by Kem White
    • Beautiful Story, Masterfully Written
Format: Kindle
I was smiling, and almost crying at the end. There was some confusion at one point near the end. I’ll have to go back and think on that surprise.
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2025 by Amazon Customer
    • Another Powers Triumph
Format: Hardcover
"I have a story to tell, the story of my friend and me and how we changed the future of mankind." [p. 137] "I asked you for a bedtime story, and you've conjured up a world so palpable that I mistake your characters for the people they once were." [p. 372] Who wrote this book? The author named on the cover and the copyright page is Richard Powers. But there is another author implied, and to grasp that is to make sense of some contradictions and chronological anomalies. There are two stories here. One has an omniscient narrator; the other is told by Todd Keane, a billionaire Facebook-like developer who is dictating his memoirs to an unnamed party as he faces his own decline from Lewy body dementia. Some of the same characters appear in both tales, but the one told by the omniscient narrator covers a broader scope. It is largely set on the French Polynesian island of Makatea, which relinquished its phosphate mining rights years ago to a company that left the island in tatters. Now, a new suitor has appeared -- a wealthy corporation that wants to use Makatea as a base for a "seasteading" operation, aiming to construct a floating city that will not need to answer much to any external political power. The 82 residents of Makatea must vote on whether to accept that proposal, which promises rebuilding and riches. Among Makatea's population are Rafi Young and Ina Aroita, who met as students at the University of Illinois. Rafi, a Black man, spent his childhood in a rough Chicago neighborhood; Ina, an artist, grew up in the South Pacific. They have adopted two orphaned children, and they seem to enjoy living away from the bustle of city life. Another island resident is Evelyne Beaulieu, a highly accomplished diver from Montreal, who once wrote a children's book extolling the wonders of the ocean. As a ten year-old, Todd Keane acquired Beaulieu's book, which he found enchanting. In times of stress, he imagined himself able to breathe under water, while walking from Illinois to Michigan via the bottom of the Great Lake. Todd came from a wealthy family in a North Shore suburb of Chicago. He was sent to an exclusive prep school, where he met Rafi, who was there by way of a scholarship endowed by Todd's father. Rafi was of a literary bent, in contrast to Todd's analytic mindset, but they bonded over chess, and -- later -- the ancient game of Go. The two of them ended up as roommates at the University of Illinois, where Todd had access to the university's powerful mainframe computer system, and Rafi studied literature. Eventually, Todd conceived the idea of an online platform that allowed participants to interact with one another; Rafi suggested that it could be improved by awarding points to players on the basis of their rated comments. The game, which came to be called Playground, evolved into a highly successful product that made Todd extremely rich. Rafi remained immersed in his literary endeavors, and the two eventually lost contact with each other, due in part to Todd's impulsive violation of Rafi's privacy concerning a tragic childhood episode. A review of _Playground_ doesn't really need to recapitulate the entirety of its (mainly complementary) stories. Powers produces many compelling, cinematic descriptions of underwater sea life, which may represent his attempt to convince readers that the deteriorating oceans are worth rescuing (i.e., an aquatic version of his earlier Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, _The Overstory_, which did the same for trees). His long-standing interest in computers is also prominent, nodding to current artificial intelligence projects such as ChatGPT, and sounding warnings about the future perils of AI. The book's final pages reconcile its two storylines, resolving a puzzle that must have been on the minds of readers up to that point. Powers' polymathic brilliance illuminates the entire work. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2024 by BluegrassPicker
    • Beautiful writing!!
Format: Kindle
When I finish a book and can't stop thinking about it, I know I have read something special. The theme is life. Beautiful descriptions of the ocean and its inhabitants along with a good study of human character. Of course, the potential impact of the trashing of the oceans coupled with the potential power of AI is so relevant. Don't be discouraged at the beginning of the book... keep reading because it is well worth it. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2025 by Still Reading
    • A long ride to nowhere
Format: Kindle
This novel was especially disappointing because we know the author is capable of so much more. The story touches on the issues of AI and environmental crisis, but it doesn't say anything new. The plot is thin, almost non-existent. The characters are passive and one-dimensional. It reads like a short story with a lot of filler. The book reminds us that the impact of AI is uncertain, and that Nature is important. But it doesn't go deeper than that. And the story is the life history of several unconnected people. But it's all past tense. We are never in the moment with them when decisions are made, so there is no sense of drama or suspense or hope or pain. Instead, it's a mellow recounting of nostalgia and regret. On a positive note, there is some beauty, some poetic language, some thoughtful contemplation. But it ultimately felt like a long ride to nowhere. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2025 by Richard C. Kelly

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