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Parade

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Parade

By: Rachel Cusk
Narrated by: Genevieve Gaunt
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About this listen

Midway through his life, an artist begins to paint upside down.

In Paris, a woman is attacked by a stranger in the street.

A mother dies. A man falls to his death. Couples seek escape in distant lands.

The new novel from one of the most distinctive writers of the age, Parade sets loose a carousel of lives. It surges past the limits of identity, character, and plot, to tell a true story-about art, family, morality, gender, and how we compose ourselves.

©2024 Rachel Cusk (P)2024 Faber & Faber Editors Select Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Editorial Review

The many lives of an artist
I was a little late to the Rachel Cusk game––and by “a little” I mean that I just checked out her Outline trilogy a few months ago. It didn’t take long for me to realize why everyone in my grad school program was talking about it back in 2018. Her writing is so precise and insightful that I wasn’t even ashamed of being jealous of her skill because, of course. Parade sees Cusk once again challenging any notion of what a novel can be in this nonlinear narrative about art, motherhood, and the very concept of reality. If you’re already a card-carrying Cusk-er, none of what I’ve said is probably a surprise. But for the uninitiated, Parade is a killer place to start. — Aaron S., Audible Editor

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At the start I thought it might be pretentious and too obscure but as I kept listening I was captured by the sheer brilliance and truth of the observations. Thoroughly recommended, particularly to women artists.

Brilliant

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l liked the structure of this book, somehow it conveyed inner reality in a unique way.

I hope she writes another book soon!

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I love Rachel Cusk, I like seeing the world through her writing. This reading adds to the pleasure of the language and ideas.

A beautiful reading of this challenging work

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I don’t think this is intentional but a few clauses and sentences scattered throughout the book are missing in the audio, usually caused by eyeskips. Could have done with a good audio proof reader.

Small bits missing

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The unassumed depth and sophistication of Rachel's writing based merely on her observation of life makes her one of the greatest writer of our time

Esliessly rewarding

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Cusk is confident and controlled - emotion is at its most articulate, so articulate that it approaches logic.

thought-provoking and precise

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Verbose, pretentious, not aware of anything really happening but perhaps I was unaware due to the unnecessarily complicated language and distractingly pretentious dialogue

So pretentious

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