Overview

From Rachel Cusk, her first collection of essays about motherhood, marriage, feminism, and art Rachel Cusk redrew the boundaries of fiction with the Outline trilogy, three ""literary masterpieces"" (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 listening for our age: fearless, unrepentantly erudite, and dazzling to behold.

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9781094089881

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Reviews

Impressive and wonderful. Rachel Cusk sees the truth where the rest of us can only make out shadows. Coventry is Cusk's theory of forms. -- Lauren Elkin, author of Flaneuse Sassy, honest, and memorable. Readers will come away with numerous 'aha' moments. -- Library Journal The overriding thread binding her essays is...allowing people to make sense of their lives. It's something Cusk interrogates exceptionally well throughout this well-crafted compilation. -- Publishers Weekly Opening up the deep crevices of everyday life's paradoxes, myths, and more, Cusk pulls apart the stories we tell to reflect on the mess underneath. -- Booklist (starred review) An eloquent and engrossing selection of nonfiction writing that will enhance Cusk's stature in contemporary literature. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Cusk's first collection of essays is a daring return to her own voice....It delves piercingly into familiar realms of motherhood, divorce, art, feminism, and family. -- Slate In Coventry...Cusk explains that her parents periodically withdraw contact without explanation. When her mother reaches out to reconnect after one such absence, Cusk decides not to re-engage, preferring to take up permanent residence in Coventry. It is from this place of exile that she observes the workings of the world. -- Financial Times (London) In Coventry, the British author of the widely admired Outline trilogy shows how central the self is to her artistic vision. -- New York Times Book Review The essays...[are] first-rate, marked by candor and seriousness, and they're familiar...[with] Cusk's abiding themes--her obligations as mother, daughter, citizen, artist, and breadwinner. -- New York Times The British novelist shares her voice on everything from motherhood and marriage to art in these pieces, which jump between memoir, criticism, and writing about writing. -- Time

Impressive and wonderful. Rachel Cusk sees the truth where the rest of us can only make out shadows. Coventry is Cusk's theory of forms. -- Lauren Elkin, author of Flaneuse The overriding thread binding her essays is...allowing people to make sense of their lives. It's something Cusk interrogates exceptionally well throughout this well-crafted compilation. -- Publishers Weekly Opening up the deep crevices of everyday life's paradoxes, myths, and more, Cusk pulls apart the stories we tell to reflect on the mess underneath. -- Booklist (starred review) Cusk's first collection of essays is a daring return to her own voice....It delves piercingly into familiar realms of motherhood, divorce, art, feminism, and family. -- Slate In Coventry...Cusk explains that her parents periodically withdraw contact without explanation. When her mother reaches out to reconnect after one such absence, Cusk decides not to re-engage, preferring to take up permanent residence in Coventry. It is from this place of exile that she observes the workings of the world. -- Financial Times (London) In Coventry, the British author of the widely admired Outline trilogy shows how central the self is to her artistic vision. -- New York Times Book Review The essays...[are] first-rate, marked by candor and seriousness, and they're familiar...[with] Cusk's abiding themes--her obligations as mother, daughter, citizen, artist, and breadwinner. -- New York Times Sassy, honest, and memorable. Readers will come away with numerous 'aha' moments. -- Library Journal An eloquent and engrossing selection of nonfiction writing that will enhance Cusk's stature in contemporary literature. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) The British novelist shares her voice on everything from motherhood and marriage to art in these pieces, which jump between memoir, criticism, and writing about writing. -- Time

The British novelist shares her voice on everything from motherhood and marriage to art in these pieces, which jump between memoir, criticism, and writing about writing. -- Time An eloquent and engrossing selection of nonfiction writing that will enhance Cusk's stature in contemporary literature. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Sassy, honest, and memorable. Readers will come away with numerous 'aha' moments. -- Library Journal The essays...[are] first-rate, marked by candor and seriousness, and they're familiar...[with] Cusk's abiding themes--her obligations as mother, daughter, citizen, artist, and breadwinner. -- New York Times In Coventry, the British author of the widely admired Outline trilogy shows how central the self is to her artistic vision. -- New York Times Book Review In Coventry...Cusk explains that her parents periodically withdraw contact without explanation. When her mother reaches out to reconnect after one such absence, Cusk decides not to re-engage, preferring to take up permanent residence in Coventry. It is from this place of exile that she observes the workings of the world. -- Financial Times (London) Cusk's first collection of essays is a daring return to her own voice....It delves piercingly into familiar realms of motherhood, divorce, art, feminism, and family. -- Slate Opening up the deep crevices of everyday life's paradoxes, myths, and more, Cusk pulls apart the stories we tell to reflect on the mess underneath. -- Booklist (starred review) The overriding thread binding her essays is...allowing people to make sense of their lives. It's something Cusk interrogates exceptionally well throughout this well-crafted compilation. -- Publishers Weekly Impressive and wonderful. Rachel Cusk sees the truth where the rest of us can only make out shadows. Coventry is Cusk's theory of forms. -- Lauren Elkin, author of Flaneuse

Author Information

Rachel Cusk is the author of several memoirs and a number of novels, including Saving Agnes, winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award; The Temporary; The Country Life, which won a Somerset Maugham Award; The Lucky Ones; In the Fold; Arlington Park; and The Bradshaw Variations. She was chosen as one of Granta's 2003 Best of Young British Novelists. She lives in London. Antonia Beamish is a voice-over artist and AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator. She is also a professional actress best known for performances in films such as The Last Horror Movie, Dead Creatures, and Chemical Wedding.

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