Richard Powers stellt seinen Roman »Das große Spiel« vor

The 82 inhabitants of Makatea, an island in French Polynesia, are facing a referendum: the West wants to invest in it as a production site for modular homes that float in the sea. The prospect of new jobs and a stable healthcare system is tempting, but the island's experience of exploitation through phosphate mining up until the 1960s runs deep. Children, locals and newcomers are trying to make a democratic decision about a social utopia whose invasive character no one can foresee. Among them is 92-year-old Evelyne Beaulieu, who has dedicated herself to diving since childhood and has fought for her place in a male-dominated world of research. Overwhelmed by the richness of the underwater world, she finds it almost impossible to live on land. But is it still her place to decide the future? It all began in Chicago, when Todd Keane and Rafi Young, two highly gifted boys who had been shaken by fate, lost themselves between computer science and literary studies in the strategic twists and turns of the game of Go.

With "The Great Game" (Penguin; translation: Eva Bonné), Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers has created a powerful novel about human, animal and machine intelligence, about humility and the question of the "common cause".

Moderator: Thomas Böhm
German reading: Franziska Herrmann