Booker Prize finalist: Creation Lake explores human origins using spy genre

WHERE did we come from? How did we become who we are? Where are we headed? In Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner explores these existential and philosophical questions through the framework of an espionage thriller, blending them with themes of environmental activism and humanity’s origins.

The novel centres on Sadie Smith, an undercover agent hired to infiltrate an eco-warrior group called Le Moulin. The Moulinards, as its members are called, are suspected of sabotaging the construction sites of “megabasins” – artificial lakes they believe will benefit large agricultural corporations at the expense of the environment. Smith has been employed by nameless, shadowy “contacts” to stop the eco-activists in their tracks.

But what begins as a mission to derail the Moulinards turns into a profound exploration of history, human nature and the connections that bind us to our distant ancestors.