PLAYGROUND follows four lives - a marine biologist, an artist, a schoolteacher, and an AI pioneer - that intersect on an island in French Polynesia when it is chosen as a base for seasteading, humanity's next great adventure. Powers is the author of the bestselling Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE OVERSTORY and the Booker-shortlisted BEWILDERMENT. 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.