Playground

‘For much of my childhood, I was sure I was going to be an oceanographer. I lived in Bangkok, and I often spent my weekends and summer holidays snorkelling in the South China Sea. Fifty years later, following the death of my older sister, a chain of memories sent me back to those years. The reefs that we swam in then were mostly gone. Playground began as a meditation on what had happened to that 99% of the Earth’s habitable space, the ocean, in the short span of that half a century.’

Read the full interview here.

‘Economic motives quarrel with environmental ones and artificial intelligence poses threats as well as promises as the residents of a Polynesian island prepare to vote on a proposed seasteading project led by an unidentified American billionaire. This is a characterful, capacious and engaging novel, distilling subjects as diverse as oceanography, climate change, the legacies of colonialism and the arc of a lifelong friendship into an exhilaratingly entangled narrative in which Powers’ unparalleled gifts for revealing the magic and mystery of the natural world are on full display.’

Kirkus

‘Along with its environmental warnings, the book carries an intriguing look at the ways people and animals play, as in the boys’ competitive chess, the antics of manta rays, the allure of computer games, and what a meta-minded author might do with his readers. An engaging, eloquent message for this fragile planet.’

Donna Seaman, Booklist

‘Rhapsodic with wonder, electric with cautionary facts and insights, Powers’ profound and involving novel illuminates the conundrums of human nature and the gravely endangered ocean deep.’

Xan Brooks, The Guardian

‘Playground works best as a fabulous exploration. It points out the sights, provides background and asks open-ended questions. After that, we’re largely on our own. One has the distinct sense that the author is embarked on the same journey of discovery. He’s our wonderstruck guide to a planet that he’s still figuring out, periodically dazzled by fresh information, with a charming habit of chasing every new train of thought. Powers marvels at the seabed with the same wide-eyed fervour that Emerson and Thoreau evoked, gaping at the majesty of 19th-century New England. He thrills to its “Bonnard gardens” and “Miro sculptures”, and the way an octopus can repurpose a jar to make a protective glass shell.’

Shahina Piyarali, Shelf Awareness

‘Richard Powers (Bewilderment, The Overstory) delivers a novel of spectacular thematic scope and surreal drama, centered on the tiny French Polynesian island of Makatea in the Pacific Ocean and those destined to make it their home. Starring four principal characters and the intriguing manner in which their stories converge and collide, Playground glides across the final decades of the 20th century and spills into the present day, culminating in a dramatic vision for mankind’s oceanic and land-based future.’

Ron Charles, The Washington Post

‘He writes without a drop of mawkishness about guilt and grief and the sorrow endemic to caring about the natural world … Even with faith that its parts would at some point cohere, I wasn’t prepared for the astonishing resolution that Powers delivers.’