Creation Lake

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE* n *LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD* n *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. A thirty-four-year-old American woman--a secret agent--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. Sadie has met her love, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian, by cold bump--making him believe the encounter was accidental. Like everyone Sadie 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 centuries-old farms and ancient caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who 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. Just as Sadie 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. Written in short, vaulting sections, Rachel Kushner's rendition of noir is taut and dazzling. Creation Lake is Kushner's finest achievement yet as a novelist, a work of high art, high comedy, and unforgettable pleasure. n*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE* n *LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD* n *AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* n *NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE WASHINGTON POST* *NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY NPR* 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 tact