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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

Average customer ratings
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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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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    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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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    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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2 people found this helpful

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

Next time, please hire a professional narrator

The book is too wordy, but the worst problem is the reader. I don’t know what the author was thinking! She is not a good narrator. I’ve read that her other novels are better, but when I saw that she narrated them, too, I crossed them off my wish list.

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

I Don’t Get the Hype

I don’t know what to make of this book. I made it a quarter of the way through and found myself dreading the chore of picking it up again. The monologue of an uninteresting young woman tramping around France while bleating endlessly about Neanderthals, or something. Am I missing something? Why do people like this book?

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1 person found this helpful

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

When does the story begin?

I am over halfway through and I’m still waiting for the plot to commence. Excellent descriptions and word pictures. But, no character development.

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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

Why do authors narrate their own books?

Interesting and subtle story. Got tired of narration early. Nice voice but pacing was inconsistent with too many pauses.

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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

PUBLISHERS: Please pay for professional narration!

I’m struggling with judging the book because the narration is so bad. Rachel Kushner is a good writer, but a lousy narrator. The narration is monotone and makes an otherwise interesting story almost impossible to get through.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Very talkie with little action.

Didn’t’t like so much philosophizing as in Bruno’s emails. Didn’t really like the main character/speaker.

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  • 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