LY221 Booker Books: "Creation Lake," by Rachel Kushner

Creation Lake is a coolly brilliant, genre-bending novel that masks a profound philosophical treatise within the sleek framework of a spy noir. The narrative is led by "Sadie Smith," a thirty-four-year-old American undercover agent of "ruthless tactics and clean beauty," who has been hired by shadowy corporate interests to infiltrate a radical eco-activist commune in the Guyenne region of rural France. Tasked with inciting provocation to justify a government crackdown, Sadie maneuvers through a landscape of ancient farms and "real Europe" distribution warehouses, viewing the idealistic activists with a detached, cynical eye.

The novel’s propulsive energy is regularly punctuated by the intellectual ruminations of Bruno Lacombe, the commune’s eccentric mentor who lives in a prehistoric cave and communicates only via email. As Sadie intercepts and reads Bruno’s missives, she becomes unexpectedly mesmerized by his theories on Neanderthals, whom he believes were a superior, more empathetic species than Homo sapiens. These "counter-histories" begin to erode Sadie’s carefully maintained detachment, forcing her to confront a "piercingly moral" awakening as she realizes she may be the architect of a catastrophe that threatens her own humanity.

Written in taut, "vaulting" sections, Creation Lake is both a high-stakes thriller and a meditation on the "failures of self-liberation" in a world dominated by late-stage capitalism. A strong discussion angle for the group is the contrast between Sadie’s performative identity and Bruno’s search for an authentic, ancient past—and whether Sadie’s ultimate "salt," her core essence, is as hard and nihilistic as she initially claims.

Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.

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