Bøker av Rachel Cusk

New paperback edition of the novel from the dazzlingly talented author of the Baileys-shortlisted Outline.

When first published in 2001, it divided female critics and readers. One famous columnist wrote a piece demanding that Cusk's children were taken into care, that was she was unfit to look after them. Oprah Winfrey invited her on the show to defend herself and the book as protests grew about the its honest, gritty account of the misery of those early months. It is a seminal, stand-out book on the complications of being an ambivalent mum in an age of white-washed, Annabel Karmel'd new families.

A woman writer goes to Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Though her own circumstances remain indistinct, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives, as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives.Beginning with the neighbouring passenger on the flight out and his tales of fast boats and failed marriages, the storytellers talk of their loves and ambitions and pains, their anxieties, their perceptions and daily lives. In the stifling heat and noise of the city the sequence of voice begins to weave a complex human tapestry. The more they talk the more elliptical their listener becomes, as she shapes and directs their accounts until certain themes begin to emerge: the experience of loss, the nature of family life, the difficulty of intimacy and the mystery of creativity itself.Outline is a novel about writing and talking, about self-effacement and self-expression, about the desire to create and the human art of self-portraiture in which that desire finds its universal form.

Using her own life as a starting point, Rachel looks at the issues that arise for a woman in the years after she has lived the defining experiences of feminity. She writes about marriage, separation, motherhood, work, money, domesticity and love. Cusk considers the kinds of generational knowledge the contemporary woman harbours, the terrors or expectations that have been passed down to her and that are refracted through the modern transformation of female status.Aftermath is written in the personal/political mode that characterised A Life's Work, Cusk's acclaimed book about becoming a mother.

A path-breaking novel of art, womanhood and violence, from the author of the Outline trilogy. Midway through his life, an artist begins to paint upside down. In Paris, a woman is attacked by a stranger in the street. A mother dies.

NPR''s Favorite Books of 2019Rachel Cusk redrew the boundaries of fiction with the Outline Trilogy, three “literary masterpieces” (The Washington Post) whose narrator, Faye, perceives the world with a glinting, unsparing intelligence while remaining opaque to the reader. Lauded for the precision of her prose and the quality of her insight, Cusk is a writer of uncommon brilliance. Now, in Coventry, she gathers a selection of her nonfiction writings that both offers new insights on the themes at the heart of her fiction and forges a startling critical voice on some of our most urgent personal, social, and artistic questions.Coventry encompasses memoir, cultural criticism, and writing about literature, with pieces on family life, gender, and politics, and on D. H. Lawrence, Françoise Sagan, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Named for an essay Cusk published in Granta (“Every so often, for offences actual or hypothetical, my mother and father stop speaking to me. There’s a funny phrase for this phenomenon in England: it’s called being sent to Coventry”), this collection is pure Cusk and essential reading for our age: fearless, unrepentantly erudite, and dazzling to behold.

When prize-winning author Rachel Cusk decides to travel to Italy for a summer with her husband and two young children she has no idea of the trials and wonders that lie in store. Their journey leads them to both the expected - the Piero della Francesca trail and queues at the Vatican - and the surprising - an amorous Scottish ex-pat and a longing for home - all seen through Cusk's sharp and humane perspective. Exploring the desire to travel and to escape, art and its inspirations, beauty and ugliness, and the challenge of balancing domestic life with creativity, The Last Supper is a wonderful travel book about life on the most famous art trail in the world, from one of Britain's most pre-eminent writers.

Agnes Day - sub-editor, suburbanite, failure extraordinaire - is unwell. Terminally middle-class, incurably romantic and chronically confused by life's most basic interactions, Agnes discovers disconcerting gaps in her general understanding of the world, making recovery unlikely. Life and love go on without her, but with a little facade, she can pass herself off as a success. Beneath the fiction, however, the burden of truth becomes harder to bear. 'She is a writer with a poet's eye for convincing detail, and touches on the raw emotions of life in a way that is affecting and true.' Sunday Telegraph'Told with irony and insight and some surreally beautiful imagery. At times it made me laugh out loud.' Sheila Mackay

En roman om kunst, familie, moral, kjønn og hvordan vi konstruerer oss selv – fra forfatteren av Omriss-trilogien.Parade er en roman som bryter med forestillingene våre om hvordan en historie kan fortelles. Grensene for identitet, karakterer og plot overskrides, og språket snus om på – for å vise oss verden slik den virkelig er.Boka består av fire deler, og i hver del opptrer en kunstner kalt G. I første del er G midtveis i livet da han begynner å male opp ned. Han maler også kona opp ned, og i tillegg gjør han henne stygg. Bildene blir en suksess.En kvinne blir angrepet på gata i Paris av en ukjent kvinnelig gjerningsperson. Før angriperen stikker fra åstedet, snur hun seg og betrakter offeret, slik en kunstner tar et skritt tilbake for å betrakte kunstverket sitt. Denne hendelsen er skjellsettende for kvinnen som er blitt overfalt. Sammen med historiene om G flyter perspektivene over i hverandre og danner utgangspunkt for refleksjoner rundt kunst og liv, morskap og frigjøring fra fastlåste roller.Rachel Cusk er en språkkunstner av de sjeldne, og i sin nye roman beveger hun seg i spenningsfeltet mellom fiksjon og virkelighet. Hun er en av Storbritannias og vår tids mest toneangivende forfattere, og hun har vært nominert til, og vunnet, en rekke priser for bøkene sine.]]>

A woman invites a famed artist to visit the remote coastal region where she lives, in the belief that his vision will penetrate the mystery of her life and landscape. Over the course of one hot summer, his provocative presence provides the frame for a study of female fate and male privilege, of the geometries of human relationships, and of the struggle to live morally between our internal and external worlds. With its examination of the possibility that art can both save and destroy us, Second Place is deeply affirming of the human soul, while grappling with its darkest demons.

A haunting fable of art, family, and fate from the author of the Outline trilogy.A woman invites a famous artist to use her guesthouse in the remote coastal landscape where she lives with her family. Powerfully drawn to his paintings, she believes his vision might penetrate the mystery at the center of her life. But as a long, dry summer sets in, his provocative presence itself becomes an enigma-and disrupts the calm of her secluded household.Second Place, Rachel Cusk's electrifying new novel, is a study of female fate and male privilege, the geometries of human relationships, and the moral questions that animate our lives. It reminds us of art's capacity to uplift-and to destroy.

Rachel Cusk's second novel is a ruthless, surprising story of work, gender, and control.Ralph Loman is working in an unsatisfying job at a free London newspaper when Francine Snaith, a temporary secretary for a corporate finance firm, unexpectedly crosses his path at a party. Her beauty ignites a blaze of excitement in his troubled heart. But Francine is ravenous for attention, driven by a thirst for conquest, and when Ralph tries politely to extricate himself, he finds he is bound by chains of consequence from which it seems there is no escape. In The Temporary, Rachel Cusk paints a merciless portrait of the cut and thrust of modern romance, work, and life.

Andre bind i kritikerrost og reflektert trilogi som utforsker personlig erfaring og behovet for å fortelle. Etter et samlivsbrudd flytter Faye til London. Hun strever med å bygge en ny tilværelse for seg selv og de to sønnene sine, og bruddet blir katalysatoren for en rekke endringer av personlig, moralsk, kunstnerisk og ikke minst praktisk karakter. Hun pusser opp et hus og samtaler med andre i et forsøk på å finne igjen troen på livet, men vakler mellom å kjenne seg sterk og fullstendig maktesløs, å være i ferd med å dø og å bli født på ny. Transitt viderefører tematikken i Cusks forrige bok, Omriss, og handlingene ses gjennom blikket til den samme reflekterte hovedpersonen. Romanen byr på betraktninger over barndom og skjebne, over sorgens egenverdi, moralske utfordringer, og ansvaret man har for familie og egen lykke. Med sårbar ærlighet beskriver Cusk noen av de mest grunnleggende erfaringene man gjør seg gjennom livets overganger.

Avsluttende bind i trilogi som har blitt hyllet av kritikerne. En kvinne sitter på et fly og hører på den fremmede i setet ved siden av fortelle om sitt liv. Han snakker om jobben, ekteskapet sitt og en opprivende opplevelse han akkurat har hatt: Han har gravlagt familiens hund. Kvinnen er Faye, og hun er på vei til Europa for å markedsføre boken hun akkurat har utgitt. Vel fremme snakker hun med menneskene hun møter - om kunst, familie, politikk, sorg og glede, rettferdighet og urettferdighet. På denne måten nærmer hun seg noen av de viktigste spørsmålene vi mennesker stiller.Disse samtalene, den siste med hennes egen sønn, vokser dramatisk og majestetisk sammen til en vakker avslutning. Kudos fullender Cusks trilogi med overveldende kraft. Trilogien er en av fiksjonens store triumfer.

Omriss er den første boken i trilogien som også omfatter Transitt og Kudos. En ung forfatter reiser til Aten for å holde et skrivekurs. Underveis møter hun mennesker som åpner seg for henne og forteller om livet sitt. Alle har noe de angrer på, og noe de lengter etter. Gradvis, etter hvert som lappeteppet av historier sys sammen, trer også et portrett av fortelleren fram.I mange år har britiske Rachel Cusk skildret en opplevelse av fremmedgjøring og utenforskap i møte med egen familie og kjærlighet, og hun er beundret for sin ærlighet og særegne evne til å la fiksjonen smelte sammen med den muntlige fortellingen.

Thomas Bradshaw har sagt opp jobben for å være hjemme sammen med datteren Alexa. Han tilbringer dagene med å spille piano, noe som sjokkerer foreldrene hans. Samtidig flykter kona Tonie inn i en akademisk sfære hvor begravde minner om hvem hun en gang var, blir vekket til live. Nye muligheter åpner seg, og når hun griper dem, stenges hun ute fra sin lille familie. Boken følger Thomas, hans brødre og deres familier gjennom et år med dype kriser og store åpenbaringer.

I løpet av en dag følger vi ei rekke kvinner i forstaden Arlington Park. Tilsynelatende er forstaden preget av velstand og velordenhet, men mange av kvinnene er misfornøyde med tilværelsen, der mennene går på arbeid, og de er hjemme og passer barn og hus.

En modig og selvgranskende fortelling fra forfatteren av den briljante Omriss-trilogien. I 2009 gjennomgår Rachel Cusk et samlivsbrudd, og i ruinene av ekteskapet står en hudløs kvinne med sine to døtre. Hun er sint og sårbar, og samtidig må hun definere rollen som kvinne, mor og menneske på ny. Som separert kjenner hun seg kastet ut av fellesskapet av mer vellykkede, gifte venner som trenger seg på med velmenende råd. Kan hun gjenfinne en hverdag for seg og sine når ingenting kjennes normalt? Den bejublede Omriss-trilogien (Gyldendal 2018-2019) gjorde Rachel Cusk verdenskjent som en briljant observatør og stilist. Når hun i denne boken vender blikket innover, kombineres sylskarp analyse med en rå og personlig granskning av et menneske i krise.

"e;Calamity Jane Eyre"e; arrives at "e;Cold Comfort Farm"e; when a hapless young woman with a mysterious past takes a job with an eccentric family of British gentry; a brilliant comedy of manners and identity by a Whitbread-winning young author.Stella Benson, eager to change her life, answers a classified ad and arrives in a tiny Sussex village that's home to a family slightly larger than life. Stella's hopes for the Maddens may be high, but her station among them--as au pair to their irascible son Martin--is undeniably low. What drove her to leave home, job, and life in London for such rural ignominy? Why has she severed all ties with her family? Why is she so reluctant to discuss her past? And who, exactly, is Edward?The Country Life is a rich and subtle novel about embarrassment, awkwardness, and being alone; about families, or the lack of them; and about love in some peculiar guises. Rachel Cusk, widely acclaimed in England, makes her American debut with an utterly charming, captivating novel about one young woman's adventures in self-discovery.

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book, A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother is multi-award-winning author Rachel Cusk's honest memoir that captures the life-changing wonders of motherhood. Selected by the New York Times as one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 YearsThe experience of motherhood is an experience in contradiction. It is commonplace and it is impossible to imagine. It is prosaic and it is mysterious. It is at once banal, bizarre, compelling, tedious, comic, and catastrophic. To become a mother is to become the chief actor in a drama of human existence to which no one turns up. It is the process by which an ordinary life is transformed unseen into a story of strange and powerful passions, of love and servitude, of confinement and compassion. In a book that is touching, hilarious, provocative, and profoundly insightful, novelist Rachel Cusk attempts to tell something of an old story set in a new era of sexual equality. Cusk's account of a year of modern motherhood becomes many stories: a farewell to freedom, sleep, and time; a lesson in humility and hard work; a journey to the roots of love; a meditation on madness and mortality; and most of all a sentimental education in babies, books, toddler groups, bad advice, crying, breastfeeding, and never being alone."e;Funny and smart and refreshingly akin to a war diary-sort of Apocalypse Baby Now...A Life's Work is wholly original and unabashedly true."e;-The New York Times Book Review

A haunting fable of art, family, and fate from the author of the Outline trilogy.A woman invites a famous artist to use her guesthouse in the remote coastal landscape where she lives with her family. Powerfully drawn to his paintings, she believes his vision might penetrate the mystery at the center of her life. But as a long, dry summer sets in, his provocative presence itself becomes an enigma-and disrupts the calm of her secluded household.Second Place, Rachel Cusk's electrifying new novel, is a study of female fate and male privilege, the geometries of human relationships, and the moral questions that animate our lives. It reminds us of art's capacity to uplift-and to destroy.

A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEARAfter the publication of Outline, Transit and Kudos - in which Rachel Cusk redrew the boundaries of fiction - this writer of uncommon brilliance returns with a series of essays that offers new insights on the themes at the heart of her life's work.

Michael first met the Hanburys of Egypt Hill when he was a young student. He was intrigued and delighted by their bohemian lifestyle and bravado. Twelve years later, married with a young son, Michael is invited back to the house and jumps at the chance of escaping his increasingly turbulent domestic situation. But his illusions about the family are shattered as the rotten core of the Hanbury myth is gradually revealed. Intimate in its insight, epic in its emotional scope, In the Fold is a brilliant, clever, often painful story of how we can become undone by our yearning to belong.