The Temporary

First edition. 8vo. Pp. [viii], 246. Blue cloth boards, stamped in silver to spine; sky-blue endpapers. Cover photographs by Anastasia Youtyropoulou.

Signed by Author to title-page.

Whitbread First Novel Award-winner for Saving Agnes (1993). Second novel by this author, one of Granta's Twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. A study in the mechanics of manipulation, as a vain "temp" from the typing pool latches onto lonely and insecure Ralph who promptly falls for her pretty face. Cusk recently completed a trilogy of novels, (Outline (2014), Transit (2017), and Kudos (2018)), a much-lauded attempt to forge a new art form, which the New Yorker labelled both "autobiographical fiction" and "a breathtaking success". "An exquisitely written gem of a book." –Vogue