AFTERMATH
On Marriage and Separation
In 2003, Rachel Cusk published A Life’s Work, a provocative and often startlingly funny memoir about the cataclysm of motherhood. Widely acclaimed, the book started hundreds of arguments that continue to this day. Now, in her most personal and relevant book to date, Cusk explores divorce’s tremendous impact on the lives of women.
An unflinching chronicle of Cusk’s own recent separation and the upheaval that followed—“a jigsaw dismantled”—it is also a vivid study of divorce’s complex place in our society. “Aftermath” originally signified a second harvest, and in this book, unlike any other written on the subject,
In 2003, Rachel Cusk published A Life’s Work, a provocative and often startlingly funny memoir about the cataclysm of motherhood. Widely acclaimed, the book started hundreds of arguments that continue to this day. Now, in her most personal and relevant book to date, Cusk explores divorce’s tremendous impact on the lives of women.
An unflinching chronicle of Cusk’s own recent separation and the upheaval that followed—“a jigsaw dismantled”—it is also a vivid study of divorce’s complex place in our society. “Aftermath” originally signified a second harvest, and in this book, unlike any other written on the subject, Cusk discovers opportunity as well as pain. With candor as fearless as it is affecting, Rachel Cusk maps a transformative chapter of her life with an acuity and wit that will help us understand our own.
- Farra, Straus & Giroux
- Hardcover
- August 2012
- 160 Pages
- 9780374102135
Buy the Book
$20.00
About Rachel Cusk
Rachel Cusk is the author of two memoirs, A Life’s Work and The Last Supper, and seven novels: Saving Agnes, winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award; The Temporary; The Country Life, which won a Somerset Maugham Award; The Lucky Ones; In the Fold; Arlington Park; and The Bradshaw Variations. She was chosen as one of Granta’s 2003 Best of Young British Novelists. She lives in Brighton, England.
Praise
“Striking . . . Startling . . . Unflinching . . . Bold, gripping, original and occasionally darkly funny.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“In this thought-provoking memoir, Cusk musters her considerable literary powers to mine a complex terrain filled with heartbreak and doubt . . . Interspersed within the narrative are stories within stories, vivid scenes, and piercing observations.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A penetrating exploration of gender roles in the context of marriage and family and how the dissolution of a marriage changes a person’s relationship with others.”—Vanessa Bush, Booklist
“Artful and nuanced . . . [Cusk] has the novelist’s saving graces—honesty, courage, and the ability to depict her experiences in exquisitely crafted language . . . Her exacting, cerebral treatment of such a highly-charged subject is what makes it of literary value.”—Amanda Craig, The Independent