Transit: A Novel - Softcover

Cusk, Rachel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1443456020 ISBN 13: 9781443456029

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2017

Synopsis

**FINALIST for the Scotiabank Giller Prize; FINALIST for the Goldsmiths Prize; a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year; A New York Times Notable Book of the Year**

“A work of stunning beauty, deep insight and great originality.” —The New York Times

“Brave and uncompromising. . . . A work of cut-glass brilliance.” —Financial Times

“Cusk’s writing feels, exhilaratingly, unlike any other fiction being written.” —Toronto Star

Internationally acclaimed author and Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Rachel Cusk returns with Transit, a powerful novel that captures a woman’s experience with the fear and hope that accompany unavoidable change.

Faye has moved to London with her two young sons in the wake of family collapse. The process of upheaval is the catalyst for a number of transitions—personal, moral, artistic, practical—as she endeavours to construct a new reality for herself and her children. In the city she is made to confront aspects of living she has, until now, avoided, and to consider questions of vulnerability and power, death and renewal, in what becomes her struggle to reattach herself to, and believe in, life.

Filtered through the impersonal gaze of the keenly intelligent Faye, Transit sees Rachel Cusk offer up a penetrating and moving reflection on childhood and fate, the value of suffering, the moral problems of personal responsibility and the mystery of change. In this precise yet epic novel, Cusk manages to describe the most elemental experiences, the liminal qualities of life, through a narrative near-silence that draws language toward it. She captures with unsettling restraint and honesty the longing to both inhabit and flee one’s life and the wrenching ambivalence animating our desire to feel real.

“An extraordinary piece of writing—stunningly bold, original and humane.” —The Daily Telegraph

About this title

From the Back Cover

In the wake of family collapse, a writer moves to London with her two young sons. The process of upheaval is the catalyst for a number of transitions—personal, moral, artistic, practical—as she endeavours to construct a new reality for herself and her children. In the city she is made to confront aspects of living she has, until now, avoided, and to consider questions of vulnerability and power, death and renewal, in what becomes her struggle to reattach herself to, and believe in, life.

Filtered through the impersonal gaze of its keenly intelligent protagonist, Transit sees Rachel Cusk delve deeper into the themes first raised in her critically acclaimed novel Outline, and offers up a penetrating and moving reflection on childhood and fate, the value of suffering, the moral problems of personal responsibility, and the mystery of change. In this precise, short, and yet epic novel, Cusk manages to describe the most elemental experiences, the liminal qualities of life, through a narrative near-silence that draws language towards it. She captures with unsettling restraint and honesty the longing to both inhabit and flee one’s life and the wrenching ambivalence animating our desire to feel real.

About the Author

Rachel Cusk is the author of the critically acclaimed trilogy of Outline, Transit and Kudos. She has written three memoirs—A Life’s Work, The Last Supper and Aftermath—and several novels: 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. Cusk was twice a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. She was chosen as one of Granta’s 2003 Best of Young British Novelists. She lives in London.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1443456020
• ISBN 13: 9781443456029
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272