Creation Lake

‘I had long wanted to tell a story about a group of young people who decamp from Paris to a rural outpost in France, where they are set on a collision course with the French state. At the same time, I became interested in prehistory, both what can be known about ancient people and what the longing to know actually is, a sense that we have taken a wrong turn, that our ancestors hid messages from us that we don’t know how to read. Why now? Every day is a better time than the day before to ask where we are going and where we have been.’

Read the full interview here.

‘Sadie Smith – not her real name – is an FBI agent turned spy-for-hire, whose latest mission is to infiltrate a commune of eco-activists in rural France. She’s an extraordinary creation: sharp-minded, iron-willed, accustomed to moving fast and breaking things. 

As she investigates the group, she hacks into emails from their guru, a shadowy eccentric who has withdrawn from modernity into the ancient caves that dot the landscape; he has some beguiling ideas about the role of Neanderthals through history. What’s so electrifying about this novel is the way it knits contemporary politics and power with a deep counter-history of human civilisation. We found the prose thrilling, the ideas exciting, the book as a whole a profound and irresistible page-turner.’

Maureen Corrigan, NPR

‘An espionage thriller sealed tight in the soiled plastic wrap of noir. Existential dread and exhaustion are its signature moods … You don’t read Kushner for the ‘relatability’ of her characters or even, particularly, for what happens in her novels. Instead, she draws readers in with her dead-on language and the yellow-tipping-to-orange threat-alert atmosphere of the worlds she imagines.’

Lauren LeBlanc, The Los Angeles Times

‘Buckle up: Known for her daring and cerebral work, Rachel Kushner knows how to take readers on a wild ride … Using the framework of an espionage novel, Kushner creates a spellbinding story of intrigue and subterfuge that examines the limits of control and moral influence.’

Anahid Nersessian, New York Review of Books

‘The book is at once a thriller, a history of the French left, a survey of academic theories about the prehistoric age, and a philosophical novel about human nature. It is also a dazzling work of fiction: brisk, stylish, funny, moving, and, unexpectedly, piercingly moral … At once terse and vivid, economical and expansive, Kushner’s prose here moves between global capital and hyperlocalized suffering.’

M. John Harrison, The Guardian

‘Sadie is a triumph of character – not quite fully self-deceived, not even entirely corrupted by the barely controlled confusions, emotional complications and near-disasters of the deep-cover agent’s life. She’s a satire, but she’s also being straight with us.’

Charleen Hurtubise, Irish Times

‘Kushner swerves between profound wisdom, humour and glimpses of humanity’s path toward environmental disaster, making this novel both fun and devastating – and far more urgent than a typical spy thriller.’