Staff Pick
A writer goes to Athens to teach a class... and nothing much happens. And yet, I couldn't put this quiet, consuming novel down. Cusk just lets her characters talk, and her narrator listen, and the whole thing comes together in an impressionistic chaos of images and muted longing. Recommended By Eva F., Powells.com
In Outline, Cusk displays a keen eye for the complexities that underlie even the most simple of human interactions. The result is a book that feels grand, even metaphysical, despite being entirely grounded in reality. This is a perfect read for anyone who remains silent during group conversations because they simply enjoy observing how people speak to each other. Recommended By Mar S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A Finalist for the Folio Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Baileys Women s Prize for Fiction
One of The New York Times' Top Ten Books of the Year
Named a A New York Times Book Review Notable Book and a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Vogue, NPR, The Guardian, The Independent, Glamour, and The Globe and Mail
Outline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing over an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her students in storytelling exercises. She meets other visiting writers for dinner. She goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her neighbor from the plane. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves: their fantasies, anxieties, pet theories, regrets, and longings. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast, a portrait of a woman learning to face a great loss.
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