Rachel Kushner: Creation Lake

RMIT Culture and The Wheeler Centre present twice Booker Prize-nominated author Rachel Kushner, discussing her propulsive new eco-espionage novel in conversation with RMIT's Rebecca Harkins-Cross.

Rachel Kushner's new novel 'Creation Lake' tells the story of Sadie Smith, an American spy-for-hire working in the secretive world of privately contracted surveillance. Tasked with infiltrating a commune of anarchists in rural France, she becomes entranced by a mysterious cult-leader-like figure named Bruno Lacombe who believes that freedom from the pain of the modern condition can only be achieved through a return to the ancient past. 

'Creation Lake' is both a canny homage to French noir and an incisive critique of spy-novel clichés – more than that, it is stylish, witty and audaciously cerebral. Here, the two-time National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize-shortlisted author sits down to discuss this dazzling work of double-crossing, dark humour and dangerous games, with RMIT academic Rebecca Harkins-Cross.

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