Second Place

In Second Place, Rachel Cusk constructs a taut psychological drama about an artist who invites a celebrated painter to stay at her remote home — only to have the encounter unravel her sense of self. Inspired by Mabel Dodge Luhan’s memoir, the novel interrogates creativity, ego, desire, and the power dynamics embedded in relationships. Cusk’s prose is lucid and unsettling, stripping away illusion to reveal the raw psychology beneath. The book is spare but piercing, a meditation on what we seek from art and from those who make it.