Creation Lake

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.

Auteur

Rachel Kushner

Texte du rabat

"Creation Lake is a novel about a freelance agent, a 34-year-old American woman of ruthless tactics and bold opinions and clean beauty, who is sent to do dirty work in France. "Sadie Smith" is how the narrator introduces herself to her lover, to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and to the reader. We never learn her real name. Sadie has met her lover, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian, by "cold bump"- making him believe the encounter was accidental. And like everyone she chooses to interact with, Lucien is useful to her, used by her. Sadie operates on 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 centuries-old farms and ancient caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists, who lives in a vast network of underground caves on his daughter's land and communicates only by email. Bruno believes that the path to emancipation from what ails modern life is not revolt, but a return to the ancient past before civilization. Just as Sadie is certain she's the seductress and puppet master of those whom she surveils, Bruno Lacombe 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, propulsive, and dazzling. Creation Lake is Kushner's finest achievement yet as a novelist, a work of high art, high comedy, keen insights, and unforgettable pleasure. From Rachel Kushner on the title: My character Bruno refers to "a deep cistern of voices, the lake of our creation" - meaning all of human history, the whole struggle in which chains of civilizations try to figure out how to live. He believes he can hear these voices underground. To me, "Creation Lake" suggests intrigue. Creation of what? In Sadie's case, a persona, a feint, a manipulation. But also in her case, the creation possibly of her own soul"--

Résumé
"One of the finest novelists working in the English language." -Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review

"Like Bruno-the-philosopher, Kushner is a dazzling chronicler of end times." -Maureen Corrigan, "Fresh Air"

"Kushner inhabits the spy's perspective with such eerie finesse that you feel how much fun she's having... the real covert operative here is Kushner, who's never felt more cunning than in this novel... vital and profound." -Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"A dazzling work of fiction: brisk, stylish, funny, moving, and unexpectedly, piercingly moral... At once terse and vivid, economical and expansive... true, funny, sad, shrewd, and beautifully controlled through each unyielding sentence." -Anahid Neressian, The New York Review of Books

"The two-time National Book Award finalist has once again outdone herself... a flat-out page turner of a spy story, dotted with sex and booze, sarcasm and cynicism, and a heady dose of vital curiosity." -Michelle Kircher, San Francisco Chronicle

"What makes Kushner's work irresistible is her brainy swagger." -Leigh Haber, Boston Globe

"A profound and irresistible page-turner... The prose is thrilling, the ideas electrifying." -The 2024 Booker Prize judges

"Kushner creates a spellbinding story of intrigue and subterfuge that examines the limits of control and moral influence." -Lauren LeBlanc, Los Angeles Times

"A seductive, modish, spy thriller." -Keziah Weir, Vanity Fair

"Extraordinary... full of tension and clarity... riveting..." -Nicolás Medina Mora, The Nation

"Gripping... so fun." -Laura Marsh, The New Republic

"Rich with secrets and dense with vibe, you could say that all of Kushner's novels are spy novels, exposés from someone on the inside. So, what happens when she writes an actual spy novel? Everything you might expect-espionage, intrigue, heart-racing action sequences-and something you might not: an authentic ethical awakening." -Lisa Locascio Nighthawk, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Coolly brilliant and suspenseful... Creation Lake is a class of fiction I have never before found so wonderfully seductive." -Alan Hollinghurst, The Guardian

"At last I get to say how deeply, madly, irrecoverably I loved Creation Lake... it was all stylish and cool and then somehow the book struck a blow to my heart." -Louise Erdrich

"I was completely immersed and mesmerized. Creation Lake is a highly plotted fast-paced noir and yet full of ideas and depth. Rachel Kushner is the most exciting writer of her generation." -Bret Easton Ellis

"Creation Lake reinvents the spy novel in one cool, erudite gesture. Only Rachel Kushner could weave environmental activism, paranoia, and nihilism into a gripping philosophical thriller. Enthralling and sleekly devious, this book is also a lyrical reflection on both the origin and the fate of our species. A novel this brilliant and profound shouldn't be this much fun." -Hernan Diaz