Rachel Cusk: Home Truths

‘You know when you’re reading a page of Rachel Cusk’s fiction,’ says a reviewer for The New York Times: ‘Her narrators tug insistently if coolly at the central knots of being.’ Readers of Cusk’s acclaimed Outline trilogy will recognise this smart observation. Those new to the British writer’s fiction have a treat in store: Cusk’s writing is as deeply engaging as it is engagingly deep. In this event, she joins us to discuss her latest novel Second Place, in which a couple invite a famous male artist, L, to take up residence in a small building next to their seaside property. But when L arrives accompanied by a younger woman, the motivations and expectations of everyone involved are thrown into doubt. This is fiction of the highest calibre. We were thrilled to welcome back one of the finest writers on these islands to the 2021 Edinburgh International Book Festival to discuss her book with writer and literary critic Chris Power.

Longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize

Book Festival News

Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival
Monday 26 August

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Arundhati Roy: Portal to a New World Arundhati Roy: Portal to a New World We are thrilled to welcome back one of the world’s best-respected authors to discuss her new book of essays, Azadi. The slogan of the struggle in Kashmir for what Kashmiris regard as the Indian occupation, ‘Azadi!’ is the Urdu for ‘Freedom!’. It also… Meg Mason: Femme Fatalistic Meg Mason: Femme Fatalistic Meg Mason’s breakout bestselling novel of love, family and mental health, Sorrow and Bliss, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and dubbed ‘the book you have to read this summer’ by the Evening Standard. Comparisons have arisen to BBC’s… Philippe Sands: Towards a Less Brutal World Philippe Sands: Towards a Less Brutal World How does the United Nations use the law to hold governments to account? In The Last Colony Philippe Sands QC highlights the case of the Chagos Archipelago. In the 1960s, Britain forcibly removed the inhabitants of the island. Join Sands today in… Allan Little's Big Interview with Elif Shafak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Allan Little's Big Interview with Elif Shafak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Turkish-British author Elif Shafak is a respected campaigner for women’s rights and free speech. She wrote in the New Yorker that ‘wave after wave of nationalism and tribalism have hit the shores of countries across Europe, and they have reached the… Julia Neuberger talks to Richard Holloway at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Julia Neuberger talks to Richard Holloway at the Edinburgh International Book Festival The recent history of Corbyn’s Labour Party shows that antisemitism remains a problem for British society. But headlines brought more confusion than clarity in debates about definition. Westminster peer and West London Synagogue’s Senior Rabbi Julia… R-Words: Infectious Poetry for Everyone  R-Words: Infectious Poetry for Everyone  As we navigate the pandemic we have all learned more medical terminology and nothing has been more important than the ‘R number’, explaining the rate of infection. Yet for writer and theatre director Ross Mackay, the R number is the inspiration behind his… Richard Ford with Kirsty Wark (2017 Event) Richard Ford with Kirsty Wark (2017 Event) Richard Ford is one of America’s greatest writers, capturing the changing face of the USA since the late 70s. He writes of the human condition with wit, passion and an uncanny observational eye. His beloved country has gone through seismic shifts in the… Marilynne Robinson: The Prodigal Son Marilynne Robinson: The Prodigal Son With her Gilead novels, Marilynne Robinson has created one of the most exquisitely and tenderly evoked communities in contemporary literature. Over four novels, Gilead, Home, Lila and now Jack, Robinson has portrayed life in the fictional small Iowa town… Arundhati Roy talks to Nicola Sturgeon at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Arundhati Roy talks to Nicola Sturgeon at the Edinburgh International Book Festival What did Arundhati Roy do between the publication of her Booker-winning debut The God of Small Things in 1997 and her extraordinary follow-up, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness two decades later? In a stunning new book of essays, we have the definitive… Reading Scotland: Helen McClory, The New Edinburgh Gothic Reading Scotland: Helen McClory, The New Edinburgh Gothic In a northern European city not unlike Edinburgh, three young people’s lives intersect in the flat they share. But as Helen McClory’s eagerly anticipated Bitterhall unfolds, her characters Daniel, Orla and Tom begin to be haunted by something very strange…