Creation Lake Audiobook By Rachel Kushner cover art

Creation Lake

A Novel

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Creation Lake

By: Rachel Kushner
Narrated by: Rachel Kushner
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About this listen

2024 AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE EARPHONES AWARD WINNER!

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD*
*AN INSTANT
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*

From Booker Prize finalist and two-time National Book Award finalist Rachel Kushner, 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 listen 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.

©2024 Rachel Kushner (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio
Espionage Literary Fiction Noir Psychological France Witty

Critic reviews

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by LitHub, The Millions, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The Guardian, and Publishers Weekly

What listeners say about Creation Lake

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Not What I expected.

Apparently Rachel Kushner is a big name in the literature world so it got lots of press. When this book came out it was touted as part espionage and suspense. There is little of either with lots of meandering conversations about neanderthal man, etc etc. Great book if you like that sort of thing. Not my cup of tea.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

A podium for philosophies

This was not a thriller, as advertised, but the simple story arch that served as a vector for the author to explore quasi anthropological musings. Not a lot of depth of character. Not event a ton of plot.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Story was better than the narrator

The narrator was a little monotone. The story was slow and never really got exciting. I kept waiting for something to happen and it never really did.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not a Favorite

Too much meandering prose with half-baked philosophical commentary that seemed like filler, not connected in a meaningful way to the actual story. Not sure that author was well-served by also being the audiobook narrator.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

What could have been

Lovely prose but an aimless story with dull, uninteresting characters across the board. Started in the middle and ended slightly further into the middle.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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A Wandering Tale

Too discursive for me. It was difficult and distracting trying to remember which characters were in the current story line and who was from other missions.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Doesn’t deserve the positive reviews it received

Here’s an example why:

“…taking advantage of the fact I speak French, Italian, Spanish & German…
I am fluent in all those languages, although I speak with a strong American accent. People think fluency is about having a good accent - it isn’t. Fluency is about how well you understand the language and how well you are able to speak it. Having a good accent is nothing, it is a consolation prize for people that are fluent.”

That is ridiculous. That sounds like a classic American comment from somebody that speaks a foreign language “ok” but can’t and doesn’t integrate into the local society and culture and probably doesn’t ready the local newspaper’s editorials and has now clue on what’s going on in that international city they live in. They’re probably a clueless gringo living with and surrounded by expats. Does that sound like a cool spy you want to read about?

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Waste of time

Seems like. No point. A few interesting pieces but nothing to really grab into. Sad lost lonely but not worth the time

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Boring

Disliked. Couldn’t connect with the story or the characters. I actually gave up and stopped reading it. Highly unusually for me!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Some brilliant passages of description & getting inside characters, but in need of editing.

Audio: strange choice for author to read her book set in France but mispronouncing many of the French words, as narrator professes fluency!?

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