Rachel Cusk: Life of M
Author Talk
Join Pioneer Works and The Yale Review for the only U.S. event for the Life of M, an irresistible novel of fame, power, beauty, and truth, that is also a blazing renovation of the form.
The movie star M is one of the most recognizable faces of our time. Her image is everywhere, and has been since she was a child. With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rearranged. M may live in the same places as real people. But it seems the rules of reality have melted away.
Now, a writer has decided to pay close attention to M’s life in the hope of understanding who she really is. It is hard not to feel ugly next to M, hard not to feel insignificant. But what truths—about the very experience of living—might this proximity allow the writer to briefly capture? In this astonishing novel, Rachel Cusk hunts for these truths without ever swerving into self-deception. Life of M is a thrilling investigation of who we are, and who we pretend to be, at this late stage of modern life when we are mesmerized more than ever by the images we see everywhere. It cuts through a world of noise and spectacle to bring us an eerie music of immense power and beauty.
This special Author Talk, presented by Pioneer Works in collaboration with The Yale Review, will feature a conversation between Rachel Cusk and Meghan O’Rourke. Tickets bundled with a signed copy of Life of M are available. Books will also be for sale at the event.
Rachel Cusk is the author of Second Place, the Outline trilogy, the memoirs A Life’s Work and Aftermath, and several other works of fiction and nonfiction including her most recent novel, Parade (Goldsmiths Prize, 2024). She is a Guggenheim Fellow and the recipient of the 2024 Malaparte Prize, and she has been awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She lives in Paris.
Meghan O’Rourke is the author of The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, a finalist for the National Book Award in Nonfiction. Her other books include the best-selling memoir The Long Goodbye and three poetry collections: Sun in Days, named a Top Ten Poetry Book of the Year by the New York Times; Once; and Halflife, a finalist for Britain's Forward Prize for Best First Collection. She has also edited The Story of the Body: Poems of Illness & Recovery and A World Out of Reach: Dispatches from Lockdown, and served as an editor at The New Yorker and as poetry editor at The Paris Review. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Best American Poetry. She is a professor of creative writing at Yale University and the editor of The Yale Review, which under her leadership has received two National Magazine Awards.