The Lucky Ones - Hardcover

Cusk, Rachel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857029127 ISBN 13: 9781857029123

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2003

Synopsis

The long-awaited new novel from the Whitbread Award winning author of SAVING AGNES and THE COUNTRY LIFE, which won her a Somerset Maugham Prize. In this profound study of human relationships, five overlapping narratives of love and detachment merge to form a powerful evocation of family identity.

Children grew up and left and news of them came back like news of a distant war in which they were fighting and from which they were occasionally permitted leave, when they would return for a week or two to wander about as though in a mirage of the past. It often seemed that while they had changed Ravenley had not, but by the time they left that impression had usually been reversed.

Five men and women's lives converge in this powerful and moving story of family relationships.

A young pregnant woman's misfortune; a new father's disaffection; a daughter's search for lost childhood; a mother's antagonism; a wife's secret suffering – through it all runs the story of Victor Porter, a campaigning lawyer, and his journalist wife Serena, in whose relationship the conflict between the public and the personal, between love and morality, is played out.

Rachel Cusk writes of life's transformations; of what separates us from those we love and what binds us to those we no longer understand. The Lucky Ones is a novel about creating and sustaining life. It illuminates with startling precision the texture and complexity of emotional existence within 'the bustling concourses of life'.

About this title

Review

‘The Lucky Ones has a theme equal to its author’s wit, intelligence and genius for observation. This novel is not a particularly comfortable place to be, partly because it’s so much like life and partly because Rachel Cusk is brilliant at depicting unattractive characters. But anyone who has ever lived in a family will relish it.’ Cressida Connolly, Daily Telegraph

‘Her prose is measured and poised. She share’s Virginia Woolf’s interest in making art out of the minutiae of women’s inner monologues.’ Stephanie Merritt, Observer

'Cusk is a highly interesting, original writer and, more unusually, she is a joy to read.' Helen Dunmore

'Goodness she can write. It takes the breath away.' Claudia FitzHerbert, Daily Telegraph

Praise for The Country Life:
"In this, her third novel, Rachel Cusk writes with the fastidiousness and delightful grace we have come to expect... Stella is a splendidly memorable creation." Sue Gaisford, Independent on Sunday

"This book is a delight... The Country Life is remarkable for two things; its humour and its menace... Its mixture of P.G.Wodehouse, Cold Comfort Farm and Jane Austen is a pleasure to read" Tibor Fischer, Sunday Express

“I was addicted. The detail is breathtaking and Cusk’s descriptions of a heatwave in the countryside almost had me dripping sweat and scratching the nettle stings. It is also hysterically funny.” Lisa Jewell

Sunday Telegraph

'An elegantly crafted piece consisting of five overlapping stories...this novel shows Cusk paring down her prose to excellent effect.'

Edition details

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1857029127
• ISBN 13: 9781857029123
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240