Outline

Outline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing over an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her students in storytelling exercises, meets other writers for dinner, and swims in the Ionian Sea with her seatmate. The people she encounters share their fantasies, anxieties, and regrets, drawing a portrait of a woman learning to face great loss.

Transit

In the wake of her family's collapse, a writer and her two young sons move to London. This upheaval catalyzes personal, moral, artistic, and practical transitions as she constructs a new reality. Confronting aspects of life she has avoided, she grapples with vulnerability, power, death, and renewal, offering a penetrating reflection on childhood, fate, and the mystery of change.

Kudos

A woman on a plane listens to a stranger recount his life story, including the harrowing night he buried his family dog. Faye, on her way to promote her book in Europe, engages in conversations about art, family, politics, love, and justice. These discussions culminate in a dramatic and beautiful conclusion.

A Life's Work

A Life's Work is Rachel Cusk's funny, moving, and brutally honest account of early motherhood. It covers her education in babies, books, breastfeeding, and the challenges of never being alone, provoking both acclaim and outrage.

Second Place

A woman invites a famed artist to her remote coastal home, believing his vision may reveal the mystery at the center of her life. However, as a long, dry summer sets in, his presence twists the dynamics of her secluded household.