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Creation Lake

The addictive New York Times bestseller from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author

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Creation Lake

By: Rachel Kushner
Narrated by: Rachel Kushner
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£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

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Brought to you by Penguin.

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024**

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

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

©2024 Rachel Kushner (P)2024 Penguin Audio

 Espionage Genre Fiction International Mystery & Crime Literary Fiction Mystery Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction Witty
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Critic reviews

One of the best books of the year... ambitious, intelligent and gripping... an expertly slick thriller... Kushner pulls off a remarkable feat (Philip Womack)
Rachel Kushner may have written the novel of the year... A remarkably original book (Rachel Connolly)
Kushner is one of America's greatest living authors
A novel of ideas about nothing less than civilisation itself, delivered in the guise of a thriller – the result is profound and wickedly entertaining
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, which surprised me a lot, because I did not suspect what Rachel Kushner was really up to all along. (Louise Erdrich)
Hugely enjoyable… Creation Lake is a smart, funny novel that dares to contemplate the void of uncertainty where we all stand
A philosophical novel of ideas wrapped up in a spy caper… Irresistible
A dazzling, genre-defying novel, satirical yet profound
Wild and brilliantly plotted… Think Kill Bill written by John le Carré: smart, funny and compulsively readable
Kushner has proved to be one of America’s most intellectually curious novelists....Creation Lake bears all the hallmarks of her inquisitive mind and creative daring... a spy thriller laced with a killer dose of deadpan wit...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
All stars
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I may have picked the wrong book to explore this author so I feel a little reticent in being too brutal but I just didn’t care and couldn’t be bothered to finish this title. If there was humour it was lost on me. I was attracted by the idea of a parallel story relating theories about Neanderthals running alongside the main plot of corporate subterfuge. However, with the exception of Bruno, hiding away from the world in a cave and the main character Sadie, the narrator the other characters were pretty one dimensional and Sadie pretty, unlikable. So I found myself drifting off not following the plot and not caring and ultimately not finishing the book. All this after reading so many positive reviews. Is it me? Am I the problem? I think possibly the problem was that the author was an unsuitable narrator if I’m being objective, but even so I suspect if I had read the hardcopy, I would have bailed out even sooner. And sadly I’m nervous about trying one of her earlier novels.

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Although the story was engaging, the flat, monotone of the narration made it difficult to stay engaged. This may have been deliberate as the character was detached from life, people, her own history and feelings but for me it was too much of a distraction.

Monotone reading

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I DNFd this. I kept waiting for something to happen and got so bored, I couldn’t give it the time or patience any longer. A very frustrating read.

Not for me

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sadly I didn't get on board with this book. I found the story uninteresting and failed to understand the connection between the main plot and the extensive philosophical meandering of the Bruno character. Sadie, the main character, felt flat and flawed, here a beer drinking, fake breasted, cynical seductress, there a deep thinking, open minded apostle to an old man she's never met, whose historical and philosophical teachings somehow hit a nerve woth her for no apparent rationale. I found this confusing.
the narration is pretty annoying, the narator employing this weird, robotic cadence that renders flat any attempt to bring this audiology and its cast of characters to life.

Unconvincing story and flawed protagonist

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The book itself is extraordinary. The narration nearly killed it. It is so monotonous and slow. I found myself wondering if it was AI and if not, had the narrator even read the book. I couldn't believe it when I spotted that the narration was by the author.

At 1.3x speed, the narration was tolerable, and I did make it to the end. It's a beautiful and amazing book, that deserves a better recording.

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