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Sign up todayCreation Lake
A Novel
Narrator
Rachel Kushner
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Length
11 hours 9 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Rachel Kushner further extends her hot streak with this twisty and darkly humorous philosophical thriller. Our protagonist gives us the name 'Sadie Smith' but one has to take everything she shares with a grain of salt, given the fact that she is a morally flexible spy tasked with infiltrating an activist commune in the south of France. The story unfolds with no lack of action and pyrotechnics, but what stands out is Kushner's ability to infuse her prose with such imaginative wit and beauty.”
— James • West Side Books
Bookseller recommendation
“This is an extraordinary novel, in terms of its unique and intricate plot, interwoven with ruminations on the history of humans. But what makes it so memorable is Kushner's spot-on reading. I have listened to this book twice and found it even richer the second time.”
— Mary B. • Main Street Books Davidson
Bookseller recommendation
“Neanderthals. The French countryside. Lovers. Terrorism. Rachel Kushner presents a fast paced tale of espionage and treachery. Her protagonist, Sadie, is smart, savvy, and definitely a dirty bird. A compelling listen, where you aren't really sure where you're going, but you know it's going to be one hell of a ride!”
— Yvonne • Author's Note
2024 AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE EARPHONES AWARD WINNER!
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD*
*AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*
From Rachel Kushner, two-time finalist for both the Booker Prize and National Book Award, a “vital” (The Washington Post) and “wickedly entertaining” (The Guardian) novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France—a propulsive page-turner filled with dark humor.
Creation Lake is a novel about a secret agent, a thirty-four-year-old American woman of ruthless tactics and clean beauty who is sent to do dirty work in France. “Sadie Smith” is how the narrator introduces herself to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and to her lover, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian she has met by “cold bump”—making him believe the encounter was accidental. Like everyone she targets, Lucien is useful to her and used by her. Sadie operates by strategy and dissimulation, based on what her “contacts”—shadowy figures in business and government—instruct. First, these contacts want her to incite provocation. Then they want more.
In this region of old farms and prehistoric caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who believes that the path to emancipation is not revolt but a return to the ancient past. Just as Sadie is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story.
Written in short, vaulting sections, Rachel Kushner’s rendition of “noir” is taut and dazzling. Creation Lake is Kushner’s finest achievement yet—a work of high art, high comedy, and unforgettable pleasure.
Rachel Kushner is the author of the New York Times bestseller Creation Lake, her latest novel; The Hard Crowd, her acclaimed essay collection; and the internationally bestselling novels The Mars Room, The Flamethrowers, and Telex from Cuba, as well as a book of short stories, The Strange Case of Rachel K. She has won the Prix Médicis and been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Folio Prize, and was twice a finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award in Fiction. Creation Lake was also longlisted for the National Book Award. She is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and the recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.
Rachel Kushner is the author of the New York Times bestseller Creation Lake, her latest novel; The Hard Crowd, her acclaimed essay collection; and the internationally bestselling novels The Mars Room, The Flamethrowers, and Telex from Cuba, as well as a book of short stories, The Strange Case of Rachel K. She has won the Prix Médicis and been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Folio Prize, and was twice a finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award in Fiction. Creation Lake was also longlisted for the National Book Award. She is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and the recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.
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