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Creation Lake
- Narrated by: Rachel Kushner
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
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Creation Lake
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Summary
From Rachel Kushner, Booker Prize finalist and two-time National Book Award finalist, comes a new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France
'Reinvents the spy novel in one cool, erudite gesture' HERNAN DIAZ
Sadie Smith – a thirty-four-year-old American undercover agent of ruthless tactics, bold opinions and clean beauty – is sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France. Her mission: to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists led by the charismatic svengali Bruno Lacombe.
Sadie casts her cynical eye over this region of ancient farms and sleepy villages, and at first finds Bruno’s idealism laughable – he lives in a Neanderthal cave and believes the path to enlightenment is a return to primitivism. But 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.
Beneath this parodic spy novel about a woman caught in the crossfire between the past and the future lies a profound treatise on human history. Creation Lake is Rachel Kushner’s finest achievement yet – a work of high art, high comedy and irresistible pleasure.
What listeners say about Creation Lake
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kathryn E. Goldin
- 26-09-24
intelligence Ain't Everything
Intelligence is a weapon, and Sadie knows how to employ it with cold precision and an air of superiority. Intellectual superiority is a theme in this strange soup of a book, which left me feeling like a fish on a hook from the lake that Sadie spends time at while she infiltrates a French environmental activist commune, finding her way into people's heads and beds, whilst pursuing her own agendas. I am all for a calculating and ruthless female protagonist but Sadie is detached and in many ways devoid, filling her time manipulating almost anyone and everyone.
Her only real fixation is on an aged and mysterious activist named Bruno who she only knows via a hacked email account. His treatises on the truth of the neanderthal, histories on ancient civilisations and our western assumptions of superiority are peppered like university lectures throughout the novel, and informs Sadie's framing of her own story, feeding the intellectual curiosity that is required to outsmart, snare and convince her prey, and to justify and position herself, to set her above the mileu she is ensconced with.
It's a lovely unrequited affair of sorts, as Sadie critically evaluates her world in relation to Bruno and his acolytes, an empty vessel shuffling through philosophy and experiences seemingly looking for existential meaning that elevates a life that casts all this aside at a whim.
A very beautifully described but slow thriller (not too many thrills) that almost languishes in its self-reflective athletics. Sometimes intellectual curiosity can feel a chore, and this elevated spy story , like Sadie herself feels just a bit too self-satisfied in its superiority.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- sueg
- 11-09-24
Needs to be re-recorded to do the work justice
The narration is painfully insouciant, detracting from what seems to be a brilliant book. If it is re-recorded, I would definitely repurchase.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- sean harley
- 25-09-24
Wonderful
Great story and characters. Funny and moving. Love to hear Rachel reading too. Can’t wait to read and listen to her next book.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-09-24
Creative writing
I found this very difficult and wasn’t keen on the narrator/author. There’s no doubt the writing is brilliant but I don’t think it transfers well to audible. I will read the book some time. This could win the Booker 2024
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 02-10-24
Originality
Good blend of fiction and fact. ( Presuming of course that it was indeed responsibly interpreted)
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- BTHS
- 30-09-24
Underwhelming
Just not my cup of tea,lost my interest early on and never got it back .
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- martin
- 14-09-24
Disappointing
Disappointed overall and surprised by the long listing..the fact that the author sounded like an AI not reading the story did not help what was already a difficult book to enjoy, give the narrator was a total sociopath.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Lorraine
- 12-09-24
Not my cup of tea
The combination of the format and the borderline monotonous narration just didn’t work for me-
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ms J Clark
- 26-09-24
Good story but just too rambling for me
I was disappointed with this. The premise of the story was good (spy wannabe assassin infiltrating a French group) but great portions of the book were retelling letters and it was if someone was regurgitating an anthropology degree. I usually love books read by their author, but found the narration too robotic. Genuinely surprised this reached the Booker shortlist.
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