CREATION LAKE

It's hard to imagine anyone other than Rachel Kushner narrating her gripping and highly original novel about an unconventional spy. Sadie is hired by governments and unnamed private entities to infiltrate radical eco and industrial terrorist groups. She is now in France, where she is blending into a group of potentially violent animal rights activists with a brewing plot against factory farms. Kushner's excellent narration gives Sadie's voice a sardonic yet intimate tone. Through Sadie, an American, Kushner describes the seedy underbelly of modern European society, one that tosses aside those who scramble to survive. This Europe, Kushner reminds us, is about as far from the glossy cosmopolitanism that tourists and the ultra-wealthy inhabit as it's possible to get. Masterful writing and narrating. D.G.L. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2024]