Rachel Cusk

Rachel Cusk, born in 1967 in Saskatoon, Canada, grew up mainly in Los Angeles. The family moved to Great Britain in 1974. Cusk studied English at Oxford University’s New College and then worked for a London literary agency, traveling to Spain and Central America. She made her debut in 1993 with the novel »Saving Agnes«, for which she was awarded the Whitbread First Novel Award.

She gained international recognition with the so-called Outline trilogy, a narrative project about life as a divorced woman, single mother, writer, and human being, consisting of the novels »Outline« (2014), »Transit« (2016), and »Kudos« (2018).

»Outline« is the psychogram of an author who gives a writing course in Athens in the summer and is confronted with a multitude of life stories of the participants. »Transit« follows the story of a woman who, after separating from her husband, tries to find her feet in a new life situation and a new environment.

In »Kudos«, a writer is on a reading tour with her new book after a failed relationship and is looking for answers to questions about her own identity. »For me as a writer, it seems imperative to retreat to an autobiographical form that rejects the invented, falsified representations of reality«, says the author. In addition to her works of fiction, Cusk is also the author of literary essays.

In »A Life’s Work« (2001), she soberly describes her experiences as a mother, while »Aftermath« (2012) deals with the failure of her marriage. »Rachel Cusk is a radical author who relentlessly reflects on her own self«, said DLF Kultur on the publication of »Second Place« (2021). Inspired by the memoirs of patron Mabel Dodge Luhan, the novel about a woman who invites a famous artist to her home and experiences a bitter disappointment was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Her most recent novel »Parade« (2024) interweaves the stories of several characters and takes up themes that define Cusk’s work, such as art, family, morality, and gender.

Rachel Cusk lives in Paris.

As of April 2024

Aufs Land
Malik
München, 1998
[Ü: Margarete Längsfeld]

Die Bradshaw Variationen
Rowohlt
Reinbek, 2011
[Ü: Sabine Hedinger]

Outline
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2016
[Ü: Eva Bonné]

Transit
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2017
[Ü: Eva Bonné]

Kudos
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2018
[Ü: Eva Bonné]

Second Place
Faber Faber
London, 2021

German Translation:

Der andere Ort
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2021
[Ü: Eva Bonné]

Parade
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
New York City, 2024

German Translation:

Parade
Suhrkamp
Berlin, 2024
[Ü: Eva Bonné]