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Podcast: The Wheeler Centre
Episode: Rachel Kushner: Creation Lake
Description: 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 tw...