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Outline cover art

Outline

By: Rachel Cusk
Narrated by: Kristin Scott Thomas
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Summary

Outline is a novel in 10 conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing over an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her student in storytelling exercises. She meets other writers for dinner. She goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her seatmate from the place. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves, their fantasies, anxieties, pet theories, regrets and longings. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast, a portrait of a woman learning to face great a great loss.

Outline is the first book in a short and yet epic cycle - a masterful trilogy which will be remembered as one of the most significant achievements of our times.

©2020 Rachel Cusk (P)2020 Faber & Faber

Critic reviews

'Outline succeeds powerfully. Among other things, it gets a great variety of human beings down on the page with both immediacy and depth; an elemental pleasure that makes the book as gripping to read as a thriller... A stellar accomplishment.' James Lasdun, Guardian

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What listeners say about Outline

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good novel. Dire performance.

I was intrigued by reviews of this that it deals with character in novel ways. It’s an interesting read but almost impossible to know quite how it’s supposed to work because of the utterly terrible performance.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Read it out of duty to my book group.

Disliked it- found ot disjointed and did not identify or feel any warmth towards any of the characters which I feel is important to appreciate a story or play.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

No story, just mysings of disconnected characters

Disappointed. Random personal stories of utterly disconnected people, none of whom were of interest. The incessant, poor greek accents also made it a difficult listen.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Musings on the craft of writing

Outline contains a lot of musings on the craft of writing and for that, I found it an inspiring and thoughtful, as well as thought-provoking read. I loved the small stories within the story (a writer teaching a writing class was the perfect device for delivering these), that felt a bit like actual writing exercises and made me realize that any experience can become a story, no matter how seemingly trivial. I listened to it during my summer staycation and it was afforded me the quiet I was craving, to go around in my own thoughts, weeding the garden or drinking a glass of wine in the greenhouse while hanging out with my favorite cat. It also made me want to return to my neglected novel project. The narrator was actress Kirsten Scott Thomas and she clearly had to redo some parts from inside a barrel and then whoever had to edit it didn’t put it back together very skillfully, as the sound levels and audio quality were all over the place in spots. But overall, a quiet, gentle musing on the craft of writing.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

beware of attempt at Greek accent!

Great book - interesting story line and quite original. However, the reader's Greek accent is very bad.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellently written book marred by its performance

The structure and finely observed narrative undermined by Kristin Scott Thomas’ cringe making phoney Greek accents.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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Great book

I quite liked this book and the conversations narrated were highly intriguing! As a Greek myself however, I could not help but cringe a little bit at the bizarre accent the narrator put on when pretending to be a Greek character.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting concepts, bad Greek accents

I found this very soothing to listen to while falling asleep and Kristen Scott Thomas’ voice is certainly very soothing, but she seems to emphasise the wrong parts of sentences and her Greek accents are a little bit comical (not what I think was the intended affect). I didn’t not enjoy this though.

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