by Rachel Cusk
First published 2021
M, a woman living in an isolated coastal property, invites a renowned male painter to inhabit her guest space after reading his work. When the artist arrives with an unexpected companion, he begins to destabilize the careful emotional ecosystem M has constructed with her family and partner. As boundaries blur between guest and intruder, observer and observed, M confronts the raw power dynamics of creativity, possession, and personal territory. Her attempt to control the encounter gradually unravels, revealing the volatile nature of artistic encounter and human proximity.
Genres: literary-fiction, domestic-fiction, contemporary, psychological-thriller, 21st-century, contemporary-romance
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, domestic-drama, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Coastal Property
Period: 21st-Century
192 pages · ebook · Farrar, Straus and Giroux