Publication Date: 05/09/2024 ISBN: 9781787331747 Category: Books

Creation Lake

Rachel Kushner

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Publication Date: 05/09/2024 ISBN: 9781787331747 Category: Books

Hardback £18.99

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Mr B's review

An American spy, working in the private sector after being sacked by the security services, infiltrates a commune in rural France, intent on finding (or manufacturing) evidence of eco-terrorism. At the same time, she hacks the group’s email and becomes obsessed with the group’s pseudo-deity, Bruno, a man nobody has seen in a quarter of a century, a mysterious philosopher intent on restoring the culture of the Neanderthal to curb the damages of modern progress.

This stunning novel may be framed as a spy narrative, but opens up to discuss philosophy and anthropology, satirises the bourgeois nature of eco-activism, and asks what is the true cost of human progress and capitalism.

Gripping, thought provoking, and always surprising, Creation Lake is one of the standout novels of 2024 and is very deserving of its place on the Booker Prize longlist. – Tom M

Description

**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024**

‘The most exciting writer of her generation’ BRET EASTON ELLIS

‘Reinvents the spy novel in one cool, erudite gesture’ HERNAN DIAZ

‘Compulsively readable… Kill Bill written by John le Carre’ OBSERVER

Seductive and cunning American spy-for-hire Sadie Smith has been sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France.

Her mission: to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists influenced by the beliefs of an enigmatic elder, Bruno Lacombe, who has rejected civilisation, lives in a Neanderthal cave, and believes the path to enlightenment is a return to primitivism.

Sadie casts her cynical eye over this region of ancient farms and sleepy villages, and finds Bruno’s idealism laughable, but just as she is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story.

Beneath this a taut, dazzling story of espionage and intrigue lies one of a woman caught in the crossfire between the past and the future, and a profound treatise on human history.

Publisher Review

Kushner is one of America’s greatest living authors * Daily Telegraph * Kushner is a young master. I honestly don’t know how she is able to know so much and convey all of this in such a completely entertaining and mesmerising way — George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo Rachel Kushner’s The Mars Room shows what happens when a smart writer gets truly serious. It is a necessary and compelling book, and this year’s must read — Anne Enright, author of The Gathering The Mars Room cements Kushner’s status as one of America’s finest writers * Vogue * A thrilling and prodigious novelist — Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom If you haven’t heard of Rachel Kushner yet, you soon will. The American novelist has earned comparisons to Jennifer Egan and Jonathan Franzen… The Mars Room makes for a compelling read. Imagine a darker version of Orange Is the New Black * Sunday Times * The Mars Room is a portrait of contemporary America from one of the literary world’s most exciting emerging writers * Evening Standard *