Outline by Rachel Cusk

Extraordinarily, Rachel Cusk’s novel Outline almost completely does without plot and protagonist.

Outline is set in summertime Athens. The narrator, a writing teacher, is an excellent listener. Like precision mining equipment, she plunges past fathoms of chitchat and gloss to reach the raw essence of the people she meets. They are eloquent and self-absorbed, and she absorbs them right up.

They talk about the loss of self in marriage and again when marriage disintegrates; about parenthood and adultery; of homesickness and ambition; of finding the core of another person beneath all their facades, and how the outline of our identity changes depending on who we are with.

Outline feels weighty and weightless: small, rich morsels of life on a clean platter without the mash and gravy of drama, backstory, and dialogue - yet with vivid characters and a mysterious narrator.

Published in 2014, Outline is the first in a trilogy by Rachel Cusk. Her latest novel, Second Place, is curently on the Booker Prize longlist.

WHAT TO READ NEXT

If you liked Outline, try The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson or Checkout-19 by Claire-Louise Bennett