The new book by Rachel Cusk, a holder of numerous literary awards, completes the trilogy that breaks the literary canon, begun by the novels "Outline" and "Transit". Cusk explores the nature of family and art, justice, love, and suffering. Her heroine, Faye, arrives in a rapidly changing Europe where questions of personal and political identity are hotly debated. Encountering the rituals of the literary world, she discovers that amid differing ideas about the public behavior of the creative personality, there is no place for the story of a real person. In the people Faye interacts with, she sees the tension between truth and public image—a crack that concentrates immense dramatic force as "Kudos" moves toward a beautiful and profound climax.