'One of the most astoundingly original and necessary books I've ever read.' Guardian'A landmark in twenty-first-century English literature.' Observer'Compelling from its first pages to its extraordinary final scene.' New Statesman'A perfect synthesis of form and content.' Deborah LevyA woman on a plane listens to the stranger in the seat next to hers telling her the story of his life: his work, his marriage, and the harrowing night he has just spent burying the family dog. That woman is Faye, who is on her way to Europe to promote the book she has just published. Once she reaches her destination, the conversations she has with the people she meets - about art, about family, about politics, about love, about sorrow and joy, about justice and injustice - include the most far-reaching questions human beings ask. These conversations, the last of them on the phone with her son, rise dramatically and majestically to a beautiful conclusion.Following the novels Outline and Transit, Kudos completes Rachel Cusk's trilogy with overwhelming power.

Rachel Cusk is the author of the trilogy Outline, Transit, Kudos; the memoirs A Life's Work, The Last Supper and Aftermath; and several other novels: Saving Agnes (winner of the Whitbread Award), The Temporary, The Country Life(winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), The Lucky Ones, In the Fold, Arlington Park and The Bradshaw Variations. She was chosen as one of Granta's 2003 Best Young British Novelists. She has been shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize three times, most recently for Kudos.