I’m having a hard time deciding on how to classify this novel, then again, maybe it doesn’t need to be confined. Sadie Smith was fired from her job with the US intelligence department and now is kind of like a “spy for hire.” Her current job is to go undercover and get the goods, research, or put a stop to (whatever her unnamed employer wants) on the Moulinards, a small farming commune in southwestern France. It seems they are protesting the government building a large megabasin for corporate farming. The story becomes a deep dive into philosophy, anthropology, and even astronomy as Sadie goes toe-to-toe with Bruno, the leader of Moulinards. Bruno is an eco-activist and believer that the Neanderthals had it right; in fact, he is going back to their way of life. As much as Sadie (and who is she really?) is a tough and independent person, the conversations between Bruno and herself have her pondering the cost progress has waged on humanity. This is a cerebral read, but it felt sly and cunning, not overly heavy. Grab this one today if you enjoy literary suspense with thought-provoking themes. 3.5⭐️

This book is deeply enjoyable to perceptive readers for its artful layers of subtle tapestry, Kushner is like an Olympic athlete whose arduous work is invisible, the reader witnesses only the immersive magic of her joyful expertise in each moment. As someone who has limited patience with structurally “experimental” novels, I appreciate that the author consistently transcends the form here, yet still gives us a coherent chronological foundation, story, character web, outstanding evocative distinctive arena and compelling thesis, while also creating her own ways of using her telepathic powers through deftly interwoven relationships to deliver a novel that so satisfyingly welcomes the reader on so many levels, successively nested. It’s a loving, warm-hearted, funny, compellingly seductive and subtle experience, mountainously enjoyable, memorable and timely.

Attention insomniacs: looking for something better than Xanax or Ambien? I think I can help. Creation Lake is so dull, contrived and full of itself, that it even makes its sex scenes boring. Are you interested in pages and pages of the differences between Neanderthal and Homo Sapien cave art? Didn’t think so. The author is so in love with her arcane knowledge of insignificant things and her use of short, ueseless chapters, that in the end, it’s a big yawn.

When this novel started out talking about Neanderthals, my first thought was, "What is going on here? I thought this was a book about a spy who infiltrates an anarchist group in rural France." But as I got deeper into the novel, the Neanderthal bits were actually my favorite things about the book. Ms. Kushner, a Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, certainly knows how to write. But if you are looking for a straightforward spy thriller, forget it. This story is like a slow burn, pulling you in via an assortment of characters, most of whom I found unlikeable or one-dimensional. The protagonist, "Sadie Smith" (this is her pseudonym), really competes for the novel's primary focus with Bruno, who strangely communicates only by email in his interactions with the anarchist group, whose motivations are eco-related as they supposedly are trying to prevent farmers in the area from selling out to Big Corporations. Sadie -- who works as a spy-for-hire since she was fired from the FBI -- apparently is working for the corporate bigwigs to unearth the group's plans (although the reader is not certain about this). There is a lot to take in and impatient readers may not appreciate a lot of the long philosophical/cultural/anthropological passages to the detriment of uncovering the motivations of the main characters. There are some interesting aspects, such as learning from the past to explain the present; the reader just has to be willing to fully engage in the mechanics of the storytelling. Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC and the opportunity to review this novel.

Yes, our main character, Sadie is an agent, a spy, sent to the western coast of France to infiltrate a leftist environmental collective in order to trigger illegal activity that could conceivably dissolve the collective and their mission: to live off the land and protest governmental and corporate co-opting of the land and water for their purposes. All of the things we have come to expect from spy thrillers are reduced and very unromantic. Instead, we are introduced to the scholarly writing of the group’s mentor, Bruno, who sends regular emails containing his musings on Neanderthals, and later on the Polynesian tribes who could navigate using the stars in ways modern man cannot understand. We get to know Sadie and the collective. Sadie’s real self gradually emerges through her immersion in Bruno’s pondering, and her contact with the people and place. The mission is just another frame up, an elaborate kind of entrapment. What makes this novel a great success for me is Sadie’s voice, wit, and insight. She’s begins her mission as a jaded traveler, and ends in her own skin. I loved this book.