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Creation Lake

By: Rachel Kushner
Narrated by: Rachel Kushner
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Publisher's summary

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

Author should not have been the reader

This would have been so much better with a professional reader. The author is so out of sync with the character and left it hard to engage with the story. Felt like an obligation to listen.

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10 people found this helpful

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

I couldn’t bother to finish it.

It just droned on about nothing. I tried to stay with it, but gave up.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Lots of interesting ideas

Sadly, the author butchers the reading of her own work with a monotonous cadence and poor pronunciation of French words and names.

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1 person found this helpful

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

It was a waste of my time.

It was disjointed and tedious
Characters were confusing and some were irrelevant.
The storyline was interrupted with sidetracks.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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The last two hours

Mostly tedious, but I enjoyed the anthropological and astrological history. What have we, as humans, kept as DNA or innate knowledge from our early ancestors?

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Tedious plot line, I kept thinking it would pick up pace but never did.

A truly narcissistic unlikable main character who seemed unable to have emotional attachment to any others in her life could have been interesting but just wasn’t. It made me feel despondent.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Why Author's Shouldn't Narrate Their Own Novels

Regardless of how well written a novel is, a miscast narrator can ruin it. Assuming that because one writes it they will be good at narrating it is a misstep in my opinion. It requires a trained actor to avoid it being an annoying snoozefest. Could not get past the monotony of this author's reading style to enjoy the book.

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1 person found this helpful

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

The superficiality of the characters.

Just a bunch of characters that enable Kushner to essay ad nauseous, and not one of them inspires empathy.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

the philosophical elements were beautiful

could not care about the protagonist, all remained in the head. nothing touched the heart.

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

Such a BORING reader

May be a really good book - I’m not sure bc the reading is POOR. so sad because I think it has a decent storyline.

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