Playground: A Novel

Playground is a 2024 novel by acclaimed American author Richard Powers. In the novel, a large cast of characters come together to revel in the abundance and importance of ocean life and games. Much like Powers’s earlier works, Playground is a sprawling, nonlinear narrative that explores ideas about technology, environmentalism, and loss. The novel has been nominated for several awards, including the Booker Prize.

This guide uses the 2024 Penguin Random House edition of Playground.

Content Warning: The novel and this guide refer to intimate partner violence.

Plot Summary

Todd Keane is an American billionaire who made his fortune in tech. He narrates his life story to an artificial intelligence (AI) device, speaking about his desire to preserve his memories since he was recently diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. Specifically, Todd hopes to preserve his memories of his friendships with Rafi Young and Ina Aroita. Todd reviews his family background.

Young Todd’s father was a stockbroker who thrived on combat and competition. Though this led to constant fights and reunions with his wife, he passed his love of competition (especially through games) on to his son. At school, Todd met a young African American boy named Rafi Young, whose remarkable intelligence impressed him. Like Todd, Rafi had a difficult family background. His family was poor, and Rafi blamed himself for his parents’ separation. His father worked tirelessly to ensure that Rafi would be smarter than his white classmates, imbuing him with a sense of competitiveness, which helped him bond with Todd. Rafi felt guilty over the death of his younger sister in an accident after a confrontation with their mother’s boyfriend; she was defending Rafi at the time.

At school, Todd introduces Rafi to chess. They play together often and relish the competitive nature of the game. Later, Rafi introduces Todd to the game Go. When Todd’s father dies, the true state of the family finances becomes clear. Todd is suddenly poor, and while he’s grieving, Rafi changes his intended college so that he can stay closer to Todd. At college, Rafi studies literature, while Todd studies computer science. Todd makes early forays into selling his software in an ad hoc manner as he plans a project that later becomes Playground, the AI invention that makes him a billionaire.

Rafi meets a young woman named Ina from the Pacific Islands. He quickly falls in love with her and plans to marry her. When Todd meets Ina, he too is smitten. Nevertheless, he spends much time with the couple, and the three become close. After graduation, Todd works on launching Playground, while Rafi pursues postgraduate studies. He struggles to finish his thesis, however, making constant revisions, seemingly because he wants to avoid completing his academic program.

Todd grows increasingly distant from Rafi during this time. In their final meeting, Rafi, struck by a burst of inspiration, encourages Todd to imbue Playground with the gamified mechanics that fostered their beloved competition. The idea is what eventually makes Playground so successful. Shortly thereafter, Ina comes to Todd in tears, revealing that she fought with Rafi over his refusal to submit his thesis. Todd shares private stories from Rafi’s past, and Ina realizes that Todd is in love with her. The next day, Rafi discovers that Todd told Ina about his private stories and, feeling betrayed, ends their friendship. Over the years, they make intermittent contact, and Todd becomes increasingly rich and successful. Even though he’s worth billions, he never feels as satisfied as he did when he spent much of his time with Rafi and Ina. He uses his billions to develop cutting-edge AI technology, the result of which is the device to which he now narrates his memories.

In a separate narrative thread, Ina and Rafi live on the French Polynesian island of Makatea. They adopted two Makatean children, whom they raised in relative peace and harmony away from the chaos of modern society. The island is rocked by the news that a US consortium wants to use the abandoned mines and harbors of Makatea to manufacture and maintain a series of floating cities. The consortium promises the people of the island that this investment will make them wealthy, though islanders fear that the consortium is simply a return of the colonial enterprises that ravaged the island generations earlier. A referendum allows the people of the community to vote on their future. The consortium sends an AI machine to enable the Makatean people to learn more about the proposal. When quizzing the AI machine, the people learn that the consortium includes Todd Keane. Rafi is horrified. He believes that this is another instance of Todd playing games against him. The islanders vote in favor of the investment, and Todd arrives on a boat. When he emerges, however, he looks old and decrepit.

Also on Makatea is a French Canadian oceanologist named Evelyne Beaulieu. She’s 90 years old but still dives regularly with the help of a local navigator and his young daughter. Evelyne recalls her life. As a precocious child (known as Evie), she felt at home only underwater. Her father helped invent a prototype of the first underwater breathing devices, so Evelyne has been diving for as long as anyone. She moved to the US to enroll in an oceanography course, where she met a fellow student named Bart Mannis. Bart fell in love with her, and when Evelyne was rejected for a postgraduate program, he helped her drive across the country to petition the dean in person. This journey was the start of their life together. Evelyne proposed to Bart, and they married before she departed for many months as part of an oceanography expedition. Evelyne spent long periods away, diving in remote parts of the world and studying nature. Each time, she returned to Bart. Evelyne didn’t feel at home on dry land, even when she and Bart had children together. Evelyne felt guilty about being away, but Bart understood that she could never live on land for long periods.

Gradually, Evelyne’s reputation and expertise overcame society’s inherent sexism. She proved herself not only as a leading scientist but as one of the world’s foremost advocates for ocean life. Evelyne wrote a book about the ocean, which quickly became a bestseller and transformed her into a minor celebrity. She talked publicly about the need to preserve oceans, which demanded that she remain on dry land but also that she be apart from her family. One day, she returned home to find that Bart had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. She stayed with him during his final days, and he forgave her for her frequent absences. After he died, Evelyne forged a new relationship with her children. Though Evelyne died at age 70 (while diving), Todd’s AI portrays her as being present on the island of Makatea at age 90 due to her influence and importance to his younger self.

The novel reveals that the island of Makatea—including Rafi, Ina, and Evelyne—is part of an elaborate story that Todd’s AI device told him. Rafi really died alone, while Ina relied on Todd to help navigate her grief. Todd resurrected Rafi (and Evelyne) through the AI device in the hope of defying death. Even in this fictional Makatea, however, he dies almost as soon as he comes ashore. The people of the island bury him at sea.