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#14 in the New York Times ‘100 Best Books of the 21st Century’

The first in Rachel Cusk’s landmark trilogy, shortlisted for the Folio Prize and the Goldsmith Prize and longlisted for the IMPAC Prize.

‘A work of stunning beauty, deep insight and great originality.’ Monica Ali, New York Times
‘One of the most daringly original and entertaining pieces of fiction I’ve ever read.’ Observer
‘A perfect synthesis of form and content.’ Deborah Levy

Outline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing over an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her student in storytelling exercises. She meets other writers for dinner. She goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her seatmate from the place. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves, their fantasies, anxieties, pet theories, regrets, and longings. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast, a portrait of a woman learning to face great a great loss.