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
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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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    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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12 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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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 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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3 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    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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1 person found this helpful

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

The Author Should Not Have Narrated

This book has gotten all kinds of praise and I think I understand why, but the author should NOT have been the reader. I have struggled to come up with a way to describe her narration. She uses a narrow range of tones, not monotone, but almost sing-song. I found it annoying and almost painful to listen to. I would recommend reading this book, not listening to this audio version.

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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

Lack of a story

There is actual story within the book. It is only the author’s ramblings on her perception of the world

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

The author should never narrate her own work

This is a beautifully written, quirky, complex novel. I can say after getting through maybe 1/3 of it.

The author’s narrative, however, was so tonally monochromatic that the dramatic meaning of the work was completely suffocated! Instead of animating the character, she robotized her.
It was an instant sleeping pill.
Very frustrating.

Read this book. Do not listen.

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7 people found this helpful

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

Mix of good writing and ponderous pace

The author is a talented writer and there are many notable passages and interesting reflections throughout the novel. But the pervading pensive introspection results in a ponderous pace, preventing the potentially rich story from ever taking flight. The novel lacks the elements many readers of tales of espionage and subterfuge crave: drama, suspense, intrigue and action are missing in these pages. It makes for a long listen…not a turn pager or a “stay up all night because I can’t put it down” experience. Still there’s much to admire in the author’s writings.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic story, dreadful narration

The narrator was so bad I couldn't listen. Could the publisher not afford a professional?

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

I eould prefer to read this one rather than listen

The author should have gone with a professional. reader The fading up-pitch of each phrase and the repetitive cadence made me sleepy.

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1 person found this helpful