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Richard Powers's new novel is a beautiful love letter to our oceans

From colonialism to AI, this Booker-longlisted novel urges us to wake up to how we treat wild creatures and places

By Emily Wilson

25 September 2024

Manta ray {Manta birostris} from below, Sulu-sulawesi seas, Indo-Pacific

Splendours of the deep : a manta ray (Mobula birostris) from below

Juergen Freund/naturepl.com

Playground
Richard Powers (Hutchinson Heinemann (UK); W. W. Norton (US))

The distinguished novelist Richard Powers is best known for his novel The Overstory. This was inspired by the work of forest ecologist Suzanne Simard, and it was in effect a love letter to trees. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Booker award and won Powers the 2019 Pulitzer prize for fiction.

Playground is the author’s 14th novel. It has been longlisted for the 2024 Booker, and there are heavy echoes of The Overstory. This time,…

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