Parade

Rachel Cusk's path-breaking novel explores themes of art, family, gender, and violence through a fragmented, compelling lens. The narrative is constructed as a carousel of lives, surging past the limits of traditional identity and plot to explore how we construct and compose ourselves in the modern world.

Midway through his life, a male artist begins to paint all his work upside down. Separately, a woman is unexpectedly attacked by a stranger in Paris, and various couples seek refuge and meaning in distant, foreign lands.

These seemingly disparate events and characters reflect on the morality and truths of contemporary experience, creating a brilliant, stark, and unsettling feat of literary fiction that challenges conventional storytelling. (125 words)