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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
The Country Life
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award
The Country Life, Rachel Cusk's third novel, is a rich and subtle story about embarrassment, awkwardness, and being alone; about families, or the lack of them; and about love in some peculiar guises.
"A brilliant oxymoron--a serious farce . . . Cusk's ability to keep us interested in innumerable human collisions is uncanny." --The New Yorker
Stella Benson sets off for Hilltop, a tiny Sussex village housing a family that is somewhat larger-than-life. Her hopes for the Maddens may be high, but her station among them--as au pair to their irascible son, Martin--is undeniably low.
What could possibly have driven her to leave her home, job, and life in London for such rural ignominy? Why has she severed all contact with her parents? And why is she so reluctant to talk about her past?
Book Details
- Publisher: Picador USA
- Publish Date: Sep 7th, 2021
- Pages: 368
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.29in - 5.53in - 1.03in - 0.71lb
- EAN: 9781250828156
- Categories: • Literary• World Literature - England - 20th Century
More books to explore
About the Author
Rachel Cusk was born in Canada in 1967 and spent much of her childhood in Los Angeles before finishing her education at St Mary's Convent, Cambridge. She read English at New College, Oxford, and has travelled extensively in Spain and Central America. She is the author of six novels. The first, Saving Agnes (1993), won the Whitbread First Novel Award. A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother (2001) is a personal exploration of motherhood. In The Lucky Ones (2003) she uses a series of five narratives, loosely linked by the experience of parenthood, to write of life's transformations, of what separates us from those we love and what binds us to those we no longer understand. In 2003, Rachel Cusk was nominated by Granta magazine as one of 20 'Best of Young British Novelists'. Her latest novel is Outline (2014).
More books by Rachel Cusk
What people are saying
Lives in Ipswich. From Wolverhampton. Published by @nightjarpress, @saltpublishing, @confingo @3amagazine. 2 children. Reading, writing, stories, birds.
Rachel Cusk’s The Country Life. Another great read. All of her books seem so different. This one is conspicuously funny. https://t.co/yxzcvCApqt
enfant terrible
there’s something wrong with me because the only rachel cusk book i can stand to read is the country life and i am obsessed with it, i laugh out loud every time i read it
"I remember reading Rachel Cusk’s “The Country Life” on a plane and shouting “ha!” when I got to a particular line. It was so funny and vulgar and unexpected that it literally startled sound out of me."
Praise for this book
"A sophisticated confection . . . For this delightful novel about the governess from hell, maybe only the word 'wicked' will do." --The New York Times Book Review
"A brilliant oxymoron--a serious farce so subtle that its command of the reader must called insidious . . . Bright, candid, and modestly humorous, Stella Benson lures us into complicity . . . Cusk's ability to keep us interested in innumerable human collisions is uncanny. We may finally learn Stella's secrets, but she remains as fascinatingly indecipherable as anyone we know." --The New Yorker
"Enchanting . . . A funny, modern Jane Eyre combined with an Anne Tyler-esque tale about escaping from the pressures of an unhappy urban life." --Newsday
"An oddly ingratiating social comedy . . . Smart, literate, offbeat, confiding . . . A pleasure." --The Boston Globe
"Hilarious . . . Stella is strange because strangeness is part of the human condition; she's just a little more aware of it than most people." --Village Voice Literary Supplement
"Smart, charming, and often outright hilarious." --Entertainment Weekly
What people are saying
Lives in Ipswich. From Wolverhampton. Published by @nightjarpress, @saltpublishing, @confingo @3amagazine. 2 children. Reading, writing, stories, birds.
Rachel Cusk’s The Country Life. Another great read. All of her books seem so different. This one is conspicuously funny. https://t.co/yxzcvCApqt
enfant terrible
there’s something wrong with me because the only rachel cusk book i can stand to read is the country life and i am obsessed with it, i laugh out loud every time i read it
