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She had the ocean. And the ocean absorbed all her hope and excitement, all her panic and pain and love, into a place far larger than anything human.
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 in 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 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 green light 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.
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She had the ocean. And the ocean absorbed all her hope and excitement, all her panic and pain and love, into a place far larger than anything human.
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 in 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 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 green light 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.
I am not a beach person. Traumatised by a near-drowning as a child, given the choice, I will head for hills over coast every single time. So this book, most of which is set either beneath the waves or on an island nine miles wide in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, should have given me nightmares. And yet, somehow, it didn’t. I adored it. I may even consider going to look at the water again one day soon. (I’m still not going in, though … )
Billionaire tech giant Todd Keane has just been diagnosed with dementia. He is in his 50s. He needs to explain himself, and his life thus far, so he dictates it to an AI, the ‘grandchild’ of one he built years earlier. Keane made his fortune by creating ‘Playground’, one of the most popular social media sites in the world. He has dedicated decades to building tech that could one day make humanity redundant. Now he’s dying.
Rafi Young is Keane’s best friend from school. Black, a prodigy, and forever scarred by the loss of his sister, Rafi wants nothing more than to beat death at its own game. His Polynesian artist girlfriend Ina completes their triangle for a time, but eventually retreats to the island of Makatea, a place once gutted by the French for the phosphate it was rich in, now wanted again by American seasteaders. (Google seasteading, it’s real.) Also on the island is diver Evie Beaulieu. (Don’t Google her, she is not real, but she should be.)
The stories of these four people are woven together spectacularly. The island and everyone on it should be saved, so should our oceans, and everything in them. This landlubber was moved to tears by the imagery, the mystical beings, the mythology and the empathy of the world Powers creates both above and below the water. This is a stunning work of art, which should be read by all. And then, instead of billionaires spending squillions on travelling to outer space, perhaps they would focus on a place closer to home, somewhere much more important, and relevant, and yet just as beautiful and otherworldly …
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