A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024 THE POWERFUL NEW NOVEL FROM
THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AND BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THE OVERSTORY AND BEWILDERMENT
'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 Rafi and Todd are two polar opposites at an elite high
school where they bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game. It sets them up for life:
Rafi will get lost in literature while Todd's work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.
Elsewhere 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. All of these people meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French
Polynesia marked for humanity's next great adventure: a plan to send floating autonomous
cities out into the open sea. As the seasteaders close in how will Evie play the
ever-unfolding oceanic game? Will Ina engage in acts of destruction? Todd and Rafi now
estranged still find themselves in competition: Todd unravels while working on an idea to
redraw the boundaries of human immortality while Rafi and the residents must decide if they
will greenlight the new project on their shores and change their home forever. Set in the
world's largest ocean Playground explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize and
interweaves profound themes of technology and the environment and a deep exploration of our
shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can. '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 story
tellers. PLAYGROUND is brilliant captivating and important - and the best book I've read this
year' ANDREA WULF More praise for Richard Powers: 'Powers has extraordinary gifts as a
writer' GUARDIAN 'Impressively precise in its scientific conjectures Bewilderment is no less
rich or wise in its emotionality' OBSERVER 'He composes some of the most beautiful sentences
I've ever read. I'm in awe of his talent' OPRAH WINFREY 'It is impossible to deny the
importance of Powers's message' SUNDAY TIMES 'Refreshing original and moving' EVENING
STANDARD
