When I opened my Kindle to begin reading one of the fall’s hottest titles, I thought I’d inadvertently downloaded the wrong book.
Having read that Rachel Kushner’s “Creation Lake” was a smart and sexy spy novel, I opened the book to a lengthy email about the history and perspective of Neanderthals.
Uh huh, you heard that right!
But that email turns out to be an intercepted communique from a legendary revolutionary to a younger activist who leads a group of agri-radicals who are edging into violence.
When did the book really hook me? When our spy, Sadie Smith, hired to infiltrate the radical commune, begins to share her backstory and her motivation.
She’s confident, at ease stepping into undercover identities, having posed as a biker gang leader’s “old lady” to expose the gang’s crimes.
But she’s young and not one of those seen-it-all, jaded spies. Her idealism and openness make her unpredictable and deeply interesting.
