Creation Lake

**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.

Review: One of the best books of the year... ambitious, intelligent and gripping... an expertly slick thriller... Kushner pulls off a remarkable feat -- Philip Womack * Spectator *
Kushner...[is] one of the century's great American novelists... Her hugely enjoyable new novel...already longlisted for this year's Booker, ought to put her firmly on the map... amazingly tense: wall-to-wall entertainment, and a real treat -- Anthony Cummins * Observer *Book of the Week* *
Rachel Kushner may have written the novel of the year... A remarkably original book -- Rachel Connolly * The Telegraph *
As I read Creation Lake, I was amazed that Kushner was pulling off such a feat. I kept thinking, 'this can't possibly work' and yet it kept working. I was completely immersed and mesmerized. It's a highly plotted fast-paced noir and yet full of ideas and depth. I've never read anything like it. Rachel Kushner is the most exciting writer of her generation -- Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho
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, author of Trust
A big novel, in the best old-fashioned sense: raucous and intricate, verbose and laconic, intimate and cosmopolitan, full of weird wisdom and lightly-worn learning - oh, and it's funny, too -- John Banville, author of The Sea
An immersive novel about an agent provocateur... It's seductive, entrancing, and quite off the wall -- Mick Herron, author of Slough House
Wild and brilliantly... Think Kill Bill written by John le Carre: smart, funny and compulsively readable * Observer *
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