Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner – Booker Prize Longlist 2024 – Our Review

Our Review…

Brimming with the disruptive energy we would expect from Kushner, “Creation Lake” poses more questions than it answers. The protagonist, Sadie Smith, is an agent on an operation in a French commune reminiscent of Extinction Rebellion but we don’t who Sadie is working for nor do we know if the commune members, who are as mysterious as our protagonist herself, are to be our heroes or villains.

The unanswered questions and enigmatic characters make Kushner’s latest novel an absolute page turner as we grasp at fragments of who our protagonist is, who she is working for and who the members of this group of eco warriors are, not to mention the mysterious, oracle-like Bruno whose emails punctuate the story, urging us to look to the past as a way of surviving late-stage Capitalism. As he observes, “it [is] easier to imagine the end of the world than it [is] to imagine the end of capitalism.”

With obvious parallels to Eleanor Catton’s “Birnam Wood”, Daniel Mason’s “North Woods”, and Heather Rose’s “Bruny”, it is infused with hints of John Le Carre and your other favourite spy thrillers. However, it is the depth of historical and philosophical references that cement this novel as a vivid snapshot of our Zeitgeist.

Review by Katina @ Great Escape Books