Playground
A Novel
Published on 30. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
416 pages
978-1-324-12373-6 (ISBN)
Description
Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic 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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
"[Powers is] a grand old oak of American letters: a towering, sturdy figure often overlooked for flashier species.... Playground is an enchanting entry point to his work that swings open easily.... [R]eminds, with a spirit of fun and wonder, why the sea-an alien planet within a planet-is so very worth sustained attention.... [T]he late twist...whorled as a seashell, may leave even the highest VO2 max reader gasping a little for air.... This is a novel that pries us from our daily hourglass, forcing a hard focus on the sand." -- Alexandra Jacobs - New York Times Book Review "A characterful, capacious and engaging novel.... Powers' unparalleled gifts for revealing the magic and mystery of the natural world are on full display." -- The 2024 Booker Prize Judges "Ravishing.... [Playground] implores us to open ourselves to the ingenuity of life beyond the human." -- Regina Marler - New York Review of Books "Ambitious, rapturous.... A transcendentalist deep dive of a novel.... A fabulous exploration." -- Xan Brooks - Guardian "Exhilarating.... [I]ntoxicating.... [A] sprawling parable of a book." -- David L. Ulin - Los Angeles Times "Unexpected and genuinely fascinating.... Ingenious tricks and clever devices abound in Powers's fiction, but never before with the provocative implications of the turn in Playground." -- Randy Boyagoda - Atlantic "Richly hued.... [G]orgeous.... [N]o author has done more to turn our gaze outward to the mysteries of the universe, above our heads and below our feet." -- Hamilton Cain - Boston Globe "[Powers] nimbly hopscotches between the wonders of nature and the marvels and dangers of cutting-edge science.... [B]rims with love for humanity and the planet." -- Heller McAlpin, NPR "Brilliant.... Powers draws these stories together in a mind-bending way that will transform the way you see the world." -- Ron Charles, CBS "Book Report" "Paint[s] the page with colour and refracted light.... [H]ugely ambitious." -- John Self - Financial Times "Powers writes with erudition and electrifying beauty.... [T]rue, indisputable greatness." -- Yagnishsing Dawoor - Guardian "Soaringly imaginative yet firmly grounded...[Playground] deals with the most pressing issues of our time in the most wrenchingly human terms." -- Wendy Smith - National Book Review "History unspools in this luminous journey that interweaves a 3,000-year-old board game, AI and floating cities.... [A]ll-around delightful." -- People "Vivid and ambitious...a love letter to the natural world.... Playground is ravishing in its descriptions of an underwater universe as fragile as it is ancient and unyielding." -- Taylor Antrim - Vogue "Powers evokes [the ocean's] ever more fragile splendor with glimmering schools of sensual detail.... Ultra-vivid, wildly gripping, and visionary." -- Jonathan Miles - Garden & Gun "You'll never look at the ocean the same way again. Playground isn't merely a great American novel, but a magnificent one.... Increasingly gripping...brilliant on the complications of friendship...incandescently beautiful.... In a word: wow." -- Nick Duerden - Independent "Magnificent.... A provocative exploration of our depths both interior and oceanic." -- Kristin H. Macomber - Washington Independent Review of Books "A richly layered story that examines the intersection of technology, nature, and personal relationships. Powers' signature blend of intellectual depth and compelling storytelling shines through.... Thought-provoking literature that engages both the mind and heart." -- Chaya Colman and Sophie Ezra - Glamour UK "[Powers is] the greatest living American novelist.... An impressive and warm-hearted book." -- Tom LeClair - Open Letters Review "Inimitable.... [Playground] immers[es] us in a boundless sense of wonder." -- Emily Choate - Nashville Scene "Is there anything Richard Powers cannot write? The world here is complete, seductive, and promising. The writing feels like the ocean. Vast, mysterious, deep, and alive." -- Percival Everett "An extraordinarily immersive journey through lives linked in mysterious ways-gripping, alarming, and uplifting." -- Emma Donoghue "Powers is a master of taking important topics of our times-from threats to our oceans and climate change to AI-and turning them into riveting and fiercely relevant books imbued with psychological insight and a deep awe for nature. This eloquent dance of the scientific and emotional makes him one of our finest storytellers. Playground is brilliant, captivating, and important-and the best book I've read this year." -- Andrea WulfMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 205 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-324-12373-6 (9781324123736)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Richard Powers is the author of fourteen novels, including The Overstory, Bewilderment, and Orfeo. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award. He lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.