A man’s romantic notions of country life disintegrate as he discerns the deceptions at the heart the illusion, inRachel Cusk’sjourney of discovery.When 18-year-old Michael visits the Hanburys’ remote family home he is captivated by their bohemian lifestyle. Years later, when he marries the strong-willed, beautiful Rebecca, he is secretly hoping to create his own version of that free-thinking family, but after the birth of their first child, the marriage begins to flounder. The chance to escape once more to his friend’s country house comes as a welcome relief until he discovers a family changed…"Rachel Cusk's new novel is the cleverest portrait of narcissism since Charles Allen Gilbert's 1892 painting "All Is Vanity." Like that image, an optical illusion that can be seen either as a young woman at her mirror or as a human skull, "In the Fold" is at once a shimmering vision of privilege and a wise meditation on disillusionment..."In the Fold" is scary smart, but that's not to say it's a pleasure, exactly. Rather, it's like spending a revelatory week with uniquely dysfunctional distant relatives. The sense upon finishing it isn't so much glee as an enhanced awareness of self and society, coupled with a desire to put all that psychic complexity aside as quickly as possible. Cusk's narrative almost requires a comic-book chaser."-Ada Calhoun, The New York TimesRachel Cuskis a Canadian novelist and writer. Her 2005 novel In the Fold was longlisted for the Booker Prize.  She is also the author of the Outline trilogy, the memoirs A Life’s Work and Aftermath, and several other works of fiction and non-fiction. She is a Guggenheim fellow and lives in Paris.