Trying to summarize the plot of a Rachel Kushner book in a few lines is next to impossible. The two-time National Book Award finalist is not one to latch onto an easy formulaic response to some larger idea of human behavior and get it wrapped up in 200 pages. And that is to our enormous benefit as CREATION LAKE is a work of such wit, thrills and so many dimensions that each small, well-crafted chapter is a gift to its savvy readers.

Calling herself “Sadie Smith,” a 34-year-old American spy takes on a French rural commune whose inhabitants are involved in situations that span the globe. She is sent to disturb them, create ”provocations” and see where it leads. Are they involved in unlawful dealings that can alter the shape of the world community? By infiltrating the life of Lucien, one of the main inhabitants, Sadie manages to become his muse, taking in whatever information he provides and living amongst the people on whom she is spying.

"CREATION LAKE is a stew that will dazzle new readers of Kushner and be met with great cheers by those who already know her inventiveness and storytelling agility."

However, the real person of interest to Sadie is Bruno Lacombe, a would-be philosopher and sometimes anthropologist who believes that the past is the way to the future. As the young activists espouse and live by his teachings, Sadie is also drawn into his intellectual fray. But does he know what she’s doing, and is he using her to his own devices while she thinks she's doing the same to him? Welcome to the world of Creation Lake.

Bruno is fascinated by the Neanderthals: “And yet many people carry Neanderthal traces, he said…. [T]his measure of ancient life was stunning, given that there have been no living communities of full Neanderthals actively contributing to the gene pool for forty thousand years. It’s as if…it were a precious keepsake, an heirloom, the remnant of a person deep inside us who knew our world before the fall, before the collapse of humanity into a cruel society of classes and domination.” Sadie relays his thoughts and ideas to us in neatly woven chapters, between the story of how her infiltration began and turned into a deeper connection as Bruno weaves his spell.

Sadie’s journey and the tiers of power and control that are being wielded by her, her backers (shady business and political operatives with US interests), Lucien, Bruno, the other activists and the world at large are labyrinthine, giving credence to Bruno’s philosophies. As much as Sadie tries to maintain her distance and control over the whole situation, the natural play of power and domination cannot be extinguished without a whole lot of clamor.

Kushner’s rock-steady prose, her brilliant exploration into the world of Sadie’s brain and heart, and the raucous relationship between Bruno and the activists pull the reader along like a thriller but are downshifted for extra traction. She doesn’t want us to get lost on this nutty escapade. So she takes us under her wing and guides us, with Sadie’s voice, through this funny and very readable novel about exploitation, reality and the world of the imagination.

CREATION LAKE is a stew that will dazzle new readers of Kushner and be met with great cheers by those who already know her inventiveness and storytelling agility. Her work is highly accessible. It feels like an old-fashioned Saturday at the movies. She provides the newsreels, the cartoons, the travel shorts and the feature film all at once, in a bucolic rustic setting filled with the hopes and dreams of those who wish to build up and tear down society at large.

So who wins? Sadie? Bruno? No one? CREATION LAKE will enthrall you from the very first page, so perhaps you should cancel a few appointments to make way for the grand achievement of this new literary season.