The tiny atoll of French Polynesia 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. By the New York Times bestselling author of The Overstory. - (Baker & Taylor)

The OverstoryThey 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. - (WW Norton)

New York TimesThe OverstoryBewilderment - (WW Norton)

Praise for Richard PowersThe OverstoryNew York Times— Barack Obama— Barbara KingsolverWashington PostBewildermentNew York TimesNew York Times Book Review— Heller McAlpin, NPRNewsweek - (WW Norton)

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Powers does for oceans in Playground what he did for forests in The Overstory (2018). He again assembles a cast of evocatively nuanced characters obsessed with nature, science, and games. Canadian Evelyne becomes a pioneering oceanographer (à la Sylvia Earle) who writes a book that transfixes Todd, a lonely boy in an Evanston "castle." In nearby Chicago, brainy Rafi suffers a family tragedy just as he receives a fellowship to attend an elite Jesuit high school. There he and Todd forge a competitive friendship over chess, then ascend to the more mysterious game, Go. Todd accrues enormous wealth with his social media platform, Playground. Rafi sets aside his considerable academic achievements to live a quiet Pacific island life with artist Ina. Powers tacks back and forth in time in this encompassing saga punctuated by Evelyne's marveling over the stunning inventiveness of undersea life as, now in her nineties, she dives off the coast of Makatea, in French Polynesia. Still struggling to recover from a decimating 1960s phosphate-mining frenzy, the island now faces a new threat—a seasteading startup. Throughout, Powers reflects on how innate play is to many species as a way of learning and bonding and how human technology has turned it catastrophic. 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.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Readers rely on Powers to dramatize the confounding paradox of our utter dependence on and rampant destruction of nature. Copyright 2024 Booklist Reviews.

Library Journal Reviews

Award-winning and best-selling Powers (Bewilderment) considers technology and the environment, as potential sea-steaders meet on Makatea in French Polynesia. The island has been chosen as a candidate to send floating autonomous cities into the open sea, but first the residents must vote on whether to approve the project. Prepub Alert. Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Library Journal Reviews

Powers's (The Overstory) novel begins with a creation myth. Ta'aroa makes an egg to house himself, cracks out of his shell, and uses the shards to make the world. It's a glorious start to a transcendent novel about love and what humanity has done to our damaged world. Marine biologists Evelyn and Bart love each other but even more, Evelyne loves the ocean. Still diving in her 90s, she lives in Makatea, French Polynesia (population 82). Rafi and Todd were high school buddies but also antagonists, Rafi twisted by his parents' anger toward white people, Todd ignored by white parents unable to see him. They bond over Go and room together in college. Rafi meets Polynesian artist Ina, everything he could want. But it can't free him from his conflicted relationship with a world he can't accept. Decades later, mega-rich Todd embraces a project to transform the world by creating artificial islands floating on the sea; the residents of Makatea must vote on whether to accept the project. Todd and Rafi meet again but Todd, who now has dementia, can't communicate. The book ends unresolved. What will the future hold for Makatea? And us? VERDICT Powers's extraordinary novels are a rebuttal to the notion that what stirs the mind can't also stir the heart.—David Keymer