A woman arrives at a coastal house owned by a famous artist, invited—or perhaps drawn—into a situation that quickly reveals itself as unstable.

Around her: the artist, his volatile partner, and the uneasy triangulation of attention, control, and interpretation. What unfolds isn’t quite plot so much as a series of shifting positions—who is observing, who is being shaped, and who gets to decide what any of it means.

Published in 2021, Second Place continues Rachel Cusk’s move away from conventional narrative into something cooler and more interrogative. Loosely inspired by Mabel Dodge Luhan’s memoir Lorenzo in Taos, the novel reworks that dynamic—artist and patron, host and intruder—into a study of authority, authorship, and the subtle violence of being seen.

Faber & Faber paperback, 2021. Very good condition: light shelf wear only; clean covers with minimal signs of handling; binding firm; pages clean and unmarked.