Life of M: A Novel
From the critically acclaimed author of the Outline trilogy, an irresistible novel of fame, power, beauty, and truth—and a blazing renovation of the form.
The movie star M is one of the most recognizable faces of our time. Her image is everywhere. It has been like that since she was a child.
With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rearranged. M may live in the same places as real people. She may meet her friends or collect her children from school or walk her dogs as they do. But it seems the rules of reality have melted away.
Now, a writer has decided to pay close attention to M’s life in the hope of understanding who she really is. It is hard not to feel ugly next to M, hard not to feel insignificant. But what truths—about the very experience of living—might this proximity allow the writer to briefly capture?
In this astonishing novel, Rachel Cusk hunts for these truths without ever swerving away into self-deception. Her pursuit leads us across olive groves and beaches, behind the smoked windows of limousines, and through beautiful cities considered the great masterpieces of civilization. And at every turn, Cusk contemplates the cost of this beauty—and what we might lose when we are hypnotized by it.
Life of M is a thrilling investigation of who we are, and who we pretend to be, at this late stage of modern life when we are mesmerized more than ever by the images we see everywhere. It cuts through a world of noise and spectacle to bring us an eerie music of immense power and beauty.
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From the critically acclaimed author of the Outline trilogy, an irresistible novel of fame, power, beauty, and truth. One of The New York Times’ Top Ten Books of the Year The Stunning Second Novel of a Trilogy That Began with OUTLINE New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of the Year Named A Most Anticipated Book by: Vogue, The Guardian, Esquire, and more Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize
“Rachel Cusk . . . is one of the most precise analysts of human behavior.” —Glamour Spare and lucid, OUTLINE is a novel in ten conversations that follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing over an oppressively hot summer. In the wake of her family’s collapse, a writer and her two young sons move to London. The process of this upheaval is the catalyst for a number of transitions as she endeavors to construct a new reality for herself and her children. In this conclusion to her groundbreaking trilogy, Cusk unflinchingly explores the nature of family and art, justice and love, and the ultimate value of suffering. A haunting fable of art, family, and fate from the author of the Outline trilogy. A startling, exhilarating novel that once again expands the notion of what fiction can be and do.