'Playground' by Richard Powers

7 January 2026

I'm grateful to Gareth Coles for recommending Richard Powers' remarkable 2024 novel 'Playground'. This is an interesting and unusual tale about the oceans, climate change and artificial intelligence. Initially the separate narratives - tracing the lives of students in an American university in the 1990s, a young girl's journey to become a diver and oceanographer, starting in the 1940s, and the contemporary story of the inhabitants of a small island in French Polynesia - feel like intriguing short stories without revealing the bigger picture. But gradually the links between these separate stories become clearer and this complex structure becomes quite compelling, moving from feeling worthy but not gripping to a fascinating jigsaw puzzle. But the book shifts to another level with a huge unexpected metatextual twist which suddenly makes sense of everything you've read so far. The scenes on the island with its cast of eccentric inhabitants - a population of 82 about to vote on the future of their home - reminded me of the novels of Louis de Bernières. And the parallel historic backstory to the oceanographer and her dives reminded me of the famous aviator in 'Great Circle' by Maggie Shipstead (reviewed here in July 2022). The writing is beautiful. and the ecological themes are important and clearly articulated. But it was the ingenious narrative structure of the book that finally gripped me.