Waterspirit's Book Club: Playground by Richard Powers

Join Waterspirit's Exploring Spirituality, Nature, and Action Book Club for a discussion of Richard Powers' novel Playground.

DATE AND TIME

Mon, May 19, 2025

6:00 PM EDT

LOCATION

online on Zoom

Register

DETAILS

Join Waterspirit's Book Club. We meet using Zoom, four times each year to discuss books exploring Spirituality, Nature and Action. Links to the Zoom meeting will arrive via email in your registration confirmation. *We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please email water@waterspirit.org or call 732-923-9788 About this book: Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old 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 on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough. They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away. Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.

TICKETS Selected during registration

Attendee

Free (1 Attendee)