Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saving Agnes | 1993 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
| 2 | The Temporary | 1995 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
| 3 | The Country Life | 1997 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
| 4 | The Lucky Ones | 2003 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
| 5 | In the Fold | 2005 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
| 6 | Arlington Park | 2006 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
| 7 | The Bradshaw Variations | 2009 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
| 8 | Second Place | 2021 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
| 9 | Medea | 2022 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
| 10 | Parade | 2024 | Rachel Cusk | Buy |
Cusk’s early novels — Saving Agnes (1993), The Temporary (1995), The Country Life (1997) — established her as a sharp comic observer of British social life. Her protagonists are typically women navigating work, family, and the particular discontents of educated modern life. The Country Life won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1997.
Her later standalones shift toward the stripped-back style developed in the Outline trilogy. Second Place (2021) is a reimagining of D.H. Lawrence’s writings from the perspective of a woman who invites an artist to stay on her property. Medea (2022) retells the Greek tragedy in contemporary prose, and Parade (2024) continues her interest in form and the limits of the novel. Taken together the ten books form an unusual career arc: from accomplished conventional fiction to one of the most discussed reinventions in recent British literary history.