This novel by Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Powers dives into several seminal relationships in which lifelong friends and lovers struggle movingly to weather the challenges of divergent priorities. The novel’s title, “Playground,” doubles as the name of a lucrative, interactive online social platform, a sort of “communal proving ground” developed by Todd Keane, a tech wizard who, faced with rapidly progressing dementia, relays the story of his life to a listener whose identity is revealed late in the book. Todd describes himself as a man puzzled by people and their emotions but enraptured by strategic games and computer programming from a young age. He says he found welcome escapes in chess, computer games, and oceanographer Evelyne Beaulieu’s popular book, “Clearly It Is Ocean,” his self-selected reward for beating his father in a best-of-five chess match at 10. But Todd’s greatest escape was his friendship with another misfit at a Jesuit high school for gifted children in Chicago. Rafi Young, a talented poet and bookish Black scholarship student, was also a refugee from a troubled home. The boys connected over chess and later the ancient game of Go, and remained close through college, though the cultural gulfs that divided them — which Powers captures with sensitivity — could never be fully bridged. Powers’ three characters come together gradually. Todd and Rafi both attend the University of Illinois-Urbana. Evelyne and Todd end up based in California, face imminent mortality with aplomb, and express their wish to be buried at sea. The tiny island of Makatea in the Pacific Ocean was devastated by phosphorus mining and hydrogen bomb testing in the 20th century. Now, the remaining population is faced with a fraught decision: Should they accept a pitch by wealthy American investors to use Makatea as a base for their floating cities — with the promise of jobs and prosperity? “Better poor fishermen than rich factory workers,” conclude two men who eke out a living in their small boat. And we gradually understand who is behind the project and what is at stake. | 