Creation Lake

　　「賽蒂．史密斯」，是主角對戀人，以及她的目標對象—法國農村公社的危險份子—所使用的化名。而她的真名，就跟其他那些曾使用過的身份一樣，隱藏在神秘的迷霧之中。

　　賽蒂秘密替美國政府做事，然而卻因為之前某次任務的意外，她暫時成為了自由工作者，直到這次又被匿名聯絡人委託。這回她在巴黎「偶然遇見」路西恩，並墜入愛河之中。年輕，並出身於名門家庭的路西恩，自然而然成為賽蒂的利用對象。根據匿名聯絡人的指示，賽蒂展開一連串的策劃和行動，試圖破壞法國南部一個農業公社抗議政府政策的活動。這個公社的領導人布魯諾，是個徹頭徹尾的反對派，不僅反對資本主義，甚至是整個人類社會。布魯諾是年輕社運份子的心靈導師，身份神秘，交流都只靠e-mail聯繫，他的核心理念就是讓人類回到過去，這是唯一從現代困境中解放而出的辦法。

　　賽蒂確信自己是為一一個能夠善用人性弱點，操控全局的傀儡大師。這回卻遇上身份同樣是一團迷霧的布魯諾，用他睿智的反歷史論述和悲情牌，誘惑著賽蒂一步步邁向險境。(文／博客來外文館)

　　*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE*

　　Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by LitHub, The Millions, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and more!

　　"At last I get to say how deeply, madly, irrecoverably I loved Creation Lake...it was all stylish and cool, and then somehow the book struck a blow to my heart." —Louise Erdrich, Kirkus

　　From Rachel Kushner, a Booker Prize finalist, two-time National Book Award finalist, and "one of the most gifted authors of her generation" (The New York Times Book Review), comes a new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France—a propulsive page-turner of glittering insights and dark humor.

　　Creation Lake is a novel about a secret agent, a thirty-four-year-old American woman of ruthless tactics, bold opinions, and clean beauty, who 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.