Sadie Smith--a sardonic, strikingly sexy, 30-something American undercover agent of questionable morals--is sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France. Her instructions are to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists and coax them into violent action, provoking the French state to crush them and their dangerous ideas for good. At first Sadie finds Bruno’s idealism laughable--he lives in a Neanderthal cave and believes the path to enlightenment is a return to primitivism--but over time she falls for his narrative. His ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own devastating story become impossible to turn away from.

Beneath this parodic spy novel about a woman caught in the crossfire between the past and the future lies a profound treatise on human history. Written in short, vaulting sections, Creation Lake is Rachel Kushner’s finest achievement yet as a novelist--a work of high art, high comedy, keen insights and irresistible pleasure.