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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 in 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 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
Listening Length : 13 hours and 51 minutes
Author : Richard Powers
Narrator : Edoardo Ballerini, see all
Publication date : September 24, 2024
Language : English
Publisher : Spotify Audiobooks
Version : Unabridged
Program Type : Audiobook
Best Sellers Rank: #7,983 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #49 in Political Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #64 in Political Fiction (Books) #522 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
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Top Amazon Reviews
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.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2024 by BluegrassPicker
Format: Hardcover
Richard Powers’ latest novel, Playground, has a choose-your-own-genre feel to it. Want a straight-forward romantic comedy? He offers two meant for-each-other leads who suffer through an insurmountable split, then re-unite. Or maybe tragic rom-com…another pair, best friends from youth, suffer a falling out only to finally re-engage after one has lost his mental faculties, his whole personhood. How about a lyrical journey through the ocean’s depths, visited by a woman who spends her life visiting underwater Edens, allowing Powers to rhapsodize about the mysteries therein. But wait! He weaves in the story of an early fictional social media behemoth, which grows to monstrous proportions by gamifying the interactions among its multi-billion-strong user base. As if that’s not enough, he suggests that its increasing reliance on deep-learning artificial intelligence might result in human resurrection – literally, the recreation of the physical being, consciousness, and memory of any and everyone who’s ever lived. All of this floats around a straight-forward story of a tiny (population: 80) Pacific isle which finds itself facing a recurrent nightmare. Unknown investors intend to use the decaying ports and other facilities left over from phosphate mining which decimated the island in the 19th and 20th centuries. They plan on building floating cities, launching them from Makatea into open waters, free at last from any governmental regulation or economic parasitism. The islanders are given the option to vote on that prospect. It is the resulting discussion which serves as the scaffolding of all of Powers’ other concerns. Two narrators appear. One, first-person, is Todd Keane, the creator of that social media platform, “Playground”. He dictates his part of the story to the AI machine he has created. Through him, we learn about his youthful friendship with Rafi Young, founded on their love of games, specifically chess, then Go. Todd is a child of privilege from Evanston just north of Chicago. His father is a manic financier who offered little love to Todd, his sister, and mother. Rafi’s own father, separated from his mother when Rafi was five, has drilled him playing games just as Todd’s did. Donald Young wants to ensure his son, who lives in the black ghettos of South Chicago, will be strong and secure, able to work twice as hard and be twice as tough as any white man. Despite that attempt, Rafi grows up to be a literary academic, endlessly perfecting his thesis on 19th century poets. He and Todd remain close through their Jesuit high school, and the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. While in college, they meet, and Rafi falls in love with, Ina Aroita. Daughter of an Hawaiian father and Tahitian mother, she grows up in Honolulu, and ventures to U of I after high school. There, she is fascinated by her first sight of snow, and develops her artistic talent of taking found objects, melding them together, and letting them speak for her. Their three stories are told at times by Todd, and at times by an omniscient narrator with whom his musings and reminiscences alternate. Also in that narration, we follow the on-going story of Makatea’s community, which includes Eveline Beaulieu. We meet Evie first as a twelve-year old French-Canadian girl whose father has thrown her into the deep end of a swimming pool, forty pounds of underwater breathing apparatus attached to her back. She survives that, demonstrating the practicality of the technology which Jacques Cousteau and others would use to open the door to all that lies below. Her story only tangentially connects to the other three. At age 92, she finds herself, along with Ina and Rafi, as a new arrival on that tiny atoll about to be overwhelmed by the 21st century. Powers does eventually bring all this together, but the structure seems a bit creaky, an overly complicated way of merging all his ideas and characters. And in the end, it’s not clear there is a unity to his purpose. But along the way, his writing is sparkling. Each character reveals an inner and outer complexity, appearing completely whole. His descriptions of the early internet, the explosive and dangerous growth of monetized social media, and the veiled musings of current day artificial intelligence are captivating. Even more mesmerizing are the trips Eveline takes into the hidden world below the ocean surface, Creatures unimaginable come alive for us. We see dancing lights on the skin of a cuttle-fish and are fascinated by the continuing relationship between Evie and a manta ray trapped in fishing line. Powers takes care with every person we meet. The unwilling mayor of the island struggles to bring meetings to order. The elderly “Queen” of the island communicates by dance and song. Even a hermit seems worthy of attention. Indeed, the most affecting moment of the book might be the death of a minor character from cancer. Even though I enjoyed this book and was drawn more and more quickly into the overlapping stories, I couldn’t help but feel that Powers’ editor was afraid to tell the Pulitzer Prize winner, “Richard, decide what you are really trying to tell us here, and hone in on that.”
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Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2024 by Al Truscott
Format: Kindle
It starts with a friendship. Rafi is a young black boy, scarred by a family tragedy and growing up in poverty. Todd is a white rich kid with parents who ignore him. They meet at an exclusive academy, Todd through wealth and Rafi on a scholarship Todd's father created. The two boys find common ground in their love of games and the fact that they are the two brightest students at the academy. Soon they are best friends and tell each other the things they shared with no one else. Their friendship continues into college where a third person is added to their friendship. Ina grew up in the Polynesian islands, moving from naval base to naval base with her family. Both young men fall in love with her but she chooses Rafi. The friendship starts to diverge. Ina is an artist who makes huge sculptures. Rafi falls into literature trying to figure out the truths of the world. Todd takes another way, becoming engrossed in the rising computer industry and the birth of the Internet. After a huge fight in their senior year, the three fall apart. Meanwhile, Evie who is older than the three by a generation, lives for diving and exploring the sea. She was one of the earliest people to dive as her father created one of the first underwater breathing apparatuses. When grown, Evie marries and has children but the ocean is always her first love and fascination. She spends most of her time away from her family on diving trips to research the ocean, leaving the family responsibilities to her husband. Makatea is a small island in French Polynesia. Rai, Ina and Evie all end up there. The island had been gutted by phosphate farming years ago and is only now recovering. Now another American organization wants to develop Makatea and create self-contained floating cities that would be launched into the ocean. The island inhabitants will decide if this will happen. When Rafi discovers that Todd, who is now an Internet billionaire, is behind the plan, he leads the opposition. What will happen? Richard Powers is an American treasure. His interests lie in environmentalism and in technology. He uses this novel to bring the two together and question if technology could be the mechanism that can solve some of the environmental problems the world is facing. He has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for fiction and been longlisted four times for the Booker Prize. In this book, the reader learns about the wonder of the oceans and the creatures who inhabit it while also learning about the history of the small islands in Polynesia. The main characters are both hard to warm up to although Ina is a delight as is the Queen of the island who keeps the traditional songs and stories of the island alive. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers as well as those worried about the environment and those who love the oceans.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2026 by Sandra Iler Kirkland
Format: Kindle
I promised to tell you about "Playground" by Richard Powers, Novelist. I just finished it last night and like all of Richard Powers work, it takes a while to process. I can tell you that it is deeply educational about ocean life, provocatively interesting, and a story that some can relate to. Powers has created a link between several individuals. If you read it you will follow the story of 2 brilliant young men who become friends at an early age, One, becomes a powerhouse in the world of tech, the other will make his mark on the world of literature. (Author Richard Powers knows of those worlds well). The third, and perhaps most interesting is a young girl who becomes a pioneer in underwater exploration, and an advocate for her friends of the deep. Their worlds interwine early then collide later. It is an interesting look at their lives personally but also an essay on global issues, what we need to be preserving, and the politics of the world, and how all lives and beings of our worlds intersect. I enjoy his work but as I have said, it is not for everyone. The stories are inside the stories and sometimes they don't just jump out at you, you have to find them to get the best of his writing. For those of you who don't know, Richard Powers lives among us in Blount County. His Pulitzer Prize winner "Overstory" was set in part in our area and brought him to live and love the unspoiled areas of the Great Smokies. "Playground" is the third of his books that I have read but you will find several others under his resume. Available on Amazon and other online outlets in hard copy and digital editions I highly recommend his books.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2024 by Christy Martin
Format: Hardcover
A great read which combines the interests of preserving the ocean and small islands within it and artificial intelligence, and the constant push and pull between these competing interests in our society. Have chosen it for my bookclub read.
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2026 by Beth DelConte
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.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2025 by RCKelly
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.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2025 by Kem White
Format: Kindle
“It excited [her] to learn that there were chapters in her own past that she had not yet experienced. At the same time, she was saddened to learn that she would never get to experience so many things from her own future.” (p349) At one level one could argue this is a very good “climate novel” (a genre of its own these days), and the book has a lot in common with the author’s spectacular “The Overstory”. But this is Richard Powers, so there’s much more to it than that. True to form, Powers delivers another emotionally and structurally complex opus. Let’s put it this way: the word “playground” in the book’s title means more than you might think. Powers takes us through the history and impact of information technology (especially AI and social media). He throws in colonization, grand-scale exploitation, art, dementia and mortality itself, and delivers plenty of sharp, thoughtful social commentary. At its heart, though, this is the story of the deeply personal journeys of a small number of profoundly interesting characters. Initially, several independent stories on multiple timelines compete for our attention. It’s a little disorienting at first. But as they come into focus, the stories begin to circle each other and then intersect. In fact they collide. The ending is poignant but enigmatic, building on a few puzzling developments that occur earlier in the story. You’ll end the way you started – somewhat disoriented. But you’ll see the somewhat surprising point of it all, and the journey will move you profoundly.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2024 by DJ