Creation Lake

Killing Eve meets Sapiens in this spy novel, farce, profound treatise on human history, propulsive page-turner, and the best novel yet from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Mars Room ''One of America''s greatest living novelists'' DAILY TELEGRAPH ''A thrilling and prodigious novelist'' JONATHAN FRANZEN, author of Freedom Sadie Smith - a sardonic, strikingly sexy, 30-something American undercover agent of questionable morals - is sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France. Her instructions are to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists led by the charismatic svengali Bruno Lacombe and coax them into violent action, provoking the French state to crush them and their dangerous ideas for good. At first Sadie finds Bruno''s idealism laughable - he lives in a Neanderthal cave and believes the path to enlightenment is a return to primitivism. But over time she falls for his narrative about the futility of civilisation and his promise of a new dawn for humanity. His ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own devastating story, become impossible to turn away from. Beneath this parodic spy novel about a woman caught in the crossfire between the past and the future lies a profound treatise on human history. Written in short, vaulting sections, Creation Lake is Rachel Kushner''s finest achievement yet as a novelist - a work of high art, high comedy, keen insights and irresistible pleasure.

Auteur

Rachel Kushner is the author of 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 shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Folio Prize, and was twice a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. 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 are translated into twenty-seven languages.

Texte du rabat

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'Imagine Slow Horses' Jackson Lamb in the body of Jodie Comer's character in Killing Eve' SUNDAY TIMES

'Compulsively readable... Kill Bill written by John le Carré' 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.

'The most exciting writer of her generation' BRET EASTON ELLIS

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

Résumé

**From Rachel Kushner, Booker Prize finalist and two-time National Book Award finalist, comes a new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France

'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 Carré' OBSERVER

Sadie Smith a thirty-four-year-old American undercover agent of ruthless tactics and bold opinions is 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 taut, dazzling story about a woman caught in the crossfire between the past and
the future lies a profound treatise on human history. Creation Lake is Rachel Kushner's finest novel yet a work of high art, high comedy and irresistible pleasure.