She starts to wonder if L, the artist, would like to paint the marsh landscape, as she still believes they share a deep kinship, even though they never met. The book is set a decade and a half later at a marsh where M lives with her second husband, Tony, a quiet yet commanding man who helps her connect to the landscape and live a peaceful life. She recognized herself in those paintings, and her encounter with the devil subsequently caused her to pursue freedom instead of the life she was living-married with a child.

The narrator, M, begins by disclosing that she encountered the devil many years ago on a train after stumbling upon an art gallery in Paris, where she was enraptured by the paintings of an artist she calls L. Lauded author of the Outline trilogy, Cusk returns with a stunning work about womanhood, self-acceptance, and the search for personal freedom. Second Place, the latest novel from Rachel Cusk, grapples with a woman’s desire to do both. Creators help connect people with something that has always been known, deep down, but could never accurately be expressed.īut the balance between living in the moment and creating art out of living is not an easy one to master. This notion alone presumes that the artist knows something the average person does not. Works of art become powerful when they can convey-or at least hint at-some kind of truth.

Rachel cusk second place