Second Place: A Novel [Paperback]

A haunting fable of art, family, and fate from the author of the Outline trilogy.

A woman invites a famous artist to use her guesthouse in the remote coastal landscape where she lives with her family. Powerfully drawn to his paintings, she believes his vision might penetrate the mystery at the center of her life. But as a long, dry summer sets in, his provocative presence itself becomes an enigmaand disrupts the calm of her secluded household.

Second Place, Rachel Cusks electrifying new novel, is a study of female fate and male privilege, the geometries of human relationships, and the moral questions that animate our lives. It reminds us of arts capacity to upliftand to destroy.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by:Buzzfeed,Vogue,O,Elle,The Guardian,The Sunday Times,BookPage,The Millions,Lit Hub,The Seattle Times,Esquire,New Statesman,Paperback Paris,The Week, Town and Country

Cusk grapples with [D.H. Lawrences] spirit inSecond Place, her first novel since the Outline Trilogy, which is one of the great fictional achievements of the new millennium. Where those crystalline novels were largely plotless and had the chilly burn of dry ice, this fascinating book finds her moving in a messier new direction . . . [Cusk] writes with a knife-throwers precision and showmanship.
John Powers, NPRsFresh Air

Rachel Cusk, the author of the Outline series, is one of the most precise analysts of human behavior. In this quiet but thrilling novel, based on a real-life vignette, she focuses on a middle-aged womana writer, a mother, a spousewho is desperate to be seen by a male artist whom shlc5