Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk

A Sunday Times (London) Top 100 Novel of the Twenty-First Century

“No one has written better about what, I suppose, is generally known as female experience . . . All of it is familiar from life but not (thus far) from literature. Everything about Arlington Park is original and fearless.” —Francine Prose, Bookforum

Set over the course of one rainy day in an ordinary English suburb, Arlington Park is a viciously funny portrait of a group of young mothers, each bound to their families, each straining for some kind of independence: Juliet, enraged at the victory of men over women in family life; Amanda, warding off thoughts of death with obsessive housework; Solly, about to give birth to her fourth child; Maisie, struggling to accept provincial life; and Christine, the optimist and host of a dinner party where the neighbors come together.

Penetrating and empathetic, Rachel Cusk's Arlington Park is “a domestic adventure about the perils of modern privilege that is as smartly satirical as it is warmly wise” (Elle).