16 Top fiction books like Second Place by Rachel Cusk

If you liked the fiction plot in Second Place by Rachel Cusk , here is a list of 16 books like this:

Similar categories in Claire-Louise Bennett's Pond book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• fiction
• contemporary
• 21st century
• novels

"If we have lost the knack of living, I thought, it is a safe bet to presume we have forfeited the magic of dying."

-Claire-Louise Bennett, Pond

"I only wish you could spend just five minutes beneath my skin and feel what it’s like. Feel the savage swarming magic I feel."

-Claire-Louise Bennett, Pond

"I haven't yet discovered what my first language is so for the time being I use English words in order to say things: I expect I will always have to do it that way; regrettably I don't think my first …"

-Claire-Louise Bennett, Pond

"Quite often I'm terribly disappointed by how things turn out, but it's usually my own fault for the simple reason that I'm too quick to conclude that things have turned out as fully as it is possible…"

-Claire-Louise Bennett, Pond

Similar categories in Elif Batuman's The Idiot book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• literature
• fiction
• contemporary
• novels
• adult
• audiobook

"For a while now, I have been conscious of a tension in my relationship with you,"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"Lighting a match felt exciting and a little bit dangerous, and when the flame came into contact with the paper, it made a sound like the needle coming down on a record player—like the music was about…"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"For the first time in my life, I couldn't think of anything I particularly wanted to study or to do. I still had the old idea of being a writer, but that was being, not doing. It didn't say what you …"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"Suddenly it occurred to me that maybe the point of writing wasn't just to record something past but also to prolong the present, like in One Thousand and One Nights, to stretch out the time until the…"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

Similar categories in Deborah Levy's Things I Don't Want to Know book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• womens

"Now that we were mothers we were all shadows of our former selves, chased by the women we used to be before we had children."

-Deborah Levy, Things I Don't Want to Know

"When happiness is happening it feels as if nothing else happened before it, it is a sensation that happens only in the present tense."

-Deborah Levy, Things I Don't Want to Know

"The fact that lipstick and mascara and eye shadow were called 'Make Up' thrilled me. Everywhere in the world there were made up people and most of them were women."

-Deborah Levy, Things I Don't Want to Know

"To become a WRITER I had to learn to INTERRUPT, to speak up, to speak a little louder, and then LOUDER, and then to just speak in my own voice which is NOT LOUD AT ALL."

-Deborah Levy, Things I Don't Want to Know

Similar categories in Deborah Levy's Hot Milk book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• novels
• fiction
• contemporary

Similar categories in Deborah Levy's Swimming Home book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

Similar categories in Elena Ferrante's The Lost Daughter book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

Similar categories in Annie Ernaux's Simple Passion book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• literature
• fiction
• contemporary
• audiobook

"I experienced pleasure like a future pain."

-Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion

"I do not wish to explain my passion—that would imply that it was a mistake or some disorder I need to justify—I just want to describe it."

-Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion

"A partir du mois de septembre l'année dernière, je n'ai plus rien fait d'autre qu'attendre un homme : qu'il me téléphone et qu'il vienne chez moi."

-Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion

"Yet it is that surreal, almost non-existent last visit that gives my passion its true meaning, which is precisely to be meaningless, and to have been for two years the most violent and unaccountable …"

-Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• fiction
• audiobook

"Always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people."

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"for people were bound, he knew, to reveal not only themselves, but what they knew, in conversation"

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"And then the nights came on and the frosts took hold again, and blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees off those who still knelt to say the rosary."

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

"When he reached the yard gate and found the padlock seized with frost, he felt the strain of being alive and wished he had stayed in bed, but he made himself carry on and crossed to a neighbour’s hou…"

-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

Similar categories in Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• literature
• fiction
• contemporary
• novels

"She would like a shallow life, swift and shallow, till some day she can start again. Get through her time fast until then. And when will that be? Then."

-Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos

Similar categories in Miranda July's All Fours book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• fiction
• contemporary
• novels
• adult
• audiobook

"But maybe the road split between: a life spent longing vs. a life that was continually surprising"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"Maybe we shouldn't do that," Jordi said. "Flatten ourselves like that. Erratic doesn't have to mean crazy or irresponsible. Shouldn't we be normalizing change?"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"I guess any calling, no mater what it is, is a kind of unresolved ache," I said, giving in to knowing more than him. "It's a problem that you can't fix, but there is some relief in knowing you will c…"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"For me lying created just the right amount of problems and what you saw was just one of my four or five faces- each real, each with different needs. The only dangerous lie was one that asked me to co…"

-Miranda July, All Fours

Similar categories in Deborah Levy's August Blue book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• fiction
• contemporary
• womens
• novels
• adult
• audiobook

"We agreed that whatever happened next in the world, we would still rub conditioner into our hair after we washed it and comb it through to the ends, we would soften our lips with rose-, strawberry-, …"

-Deborah Levy, August Blue

Similar categories in Deborah Levy's Real Estate (Living Autobiography #3) book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• womens
• contemporary

"É difícil reivindicar fragilidade e força em igual proporção, mas é essa mistura que nos constitui a todos"

-Deborah Levy, Real Estate (Living Autobiography #3)

"A história neste livro era sobre uma mulher que oferece a sua vida a um homem. Não se deve tentar isso em casa, mas é normalmente aí que acontece."

-Deborah Levy, Real Estate (Living Autobiography #3)

"The story in this book was about a woman who has gifted her life to a man. This is not something to be tried at home but it is usually where it happens."

-Deborah Levy, Real Estate (Living Autobiography #3)

"One of these men told me at a book festival that if he did not transgress too many boundaries in his marriage, there would always be a comforting pair of slippers warming for him by the fire...Will t…"

-Deborah Levy, Real Estate (Living Autobiography #3)

Similar categories in Sheena Patel's I'm a Fan book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• fiction
• contemporary
• novels
• adult
• audiobook

"It is toxic. I am familiar"

-Sheena Patel, I'm a Fan

"Happiness or safety. Or isn't that the same thing?"

-Sheena Patel, I'm a Fan

"I never came with him. I never felt safe enough to."

-Sheena Patel, I'm a Fan

"The world is made for couples. Even the unhappy ones."

-Sheena Patel, I'm a Fan

Similar categories in Ia Genberg's The Details book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• fiction
• contemporary
• adult
• audiobook

"La fiducia resta lettera morta, se non la si sente nelle ossa."

-Ia Genberg, The Details

"L'io , o meglio, il cosidetto "io", non è altro che questo: ciò che resta delle persone a cui ci siamo stretti."

-Ia Genberg, The Details

"La vita mi ha regalato la mia buona dose di magia, e il più delle volte è successo all'incontro con gli altri. Lì c'è qualcosa. Lì, soltanto lì."

-Ia Genberg, The Details

"Per i morti la successione del tempo non ha importanza, l'unica cosa che conta sono i dettagli, la densità, il come e il cosa e tutto ciò che riguarda il chi."

-Ia Genberg, The Details

Similar categories in Deborah Levy's The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• womens
• contemporary

"Sometimes we want to unbelong as much as we want to belong."

-Deborah Levy, The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography

"It was a big release from the terror of death to finally acknowledge that it is also always absurd."

-Deborah Levy, The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography

"I might one day risk falling in love again, but I was not going to lose my heart to the cardiologist."

-Deborah Levy, The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography

"To unfold any number of ideas through all the dimensions of time is the great adventure of the writing life."

-Deborah Levy, The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography

Similar categories in Rachel Cusk's Second Place book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• art
• literary fiction
• literature
• fiction
• contemporary
• 21st century
• womens
• novels
• adult
• audiobook

"Some people write simply because they don’t know how to live in the moment and have to reconstruct it and live in it afterwards."

-Rachel Cusk, Second Place

"Muutoksen ja toiston kaava on niin tiukasti yhteydessä tietynlaiseen harmoniaan elämässä, ja vapauden harjoittaminen on alisteista sille aivan kuin opinkappaleelle. Muutoksia täytyy annostella kohtuu…"

-Rachel Cusk, Second Place

"Joskus minun vain täytyy saada puhua jotta tuntisin itseni todelliseksi, ja toivoisin että sinäkin puhuisit minulle." Hän makasi vaiti pimeässä ja tuijotti kattoon. Sitten hän sanoi: "Minusta tuntuu …"

-Rachel Cusk, Second Place

"It struck me how the human capacity for receptivity is a kind of birthright, an asset given to us in the moment of our creation by which we are intended to regulate the currency of our souls. Unless …"

-Rachel Cusk, Second Place

Similar categories in Natasha Brown's Assembly book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• fiction
• contemporary
• novels
• adult
• audiobook

"I traded in my life for a sliver of middle-class comfort. For a future."

-Natasha Brown, Assembly

"Explain air. Convince a sceptic. Prove it's there. Prove what cant be seen."

-Natasha Brown, Assembly

"Because they watch (us). They're taught how to, from school. They are taught to view our bodies (selves) as objects."

-Natasha Brown, Assembly

"Everything now is profit. I am what we’ve always been to the empire: pure, fucking profit. A natural resource to exploit and exploit, denigrate, and exploit."

-Natasha Brown, Assembly

Similar categories in Jen Beagin's Big Swiss book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• fiction
• contemporary
• adult
• audiobook

"¿Habla más de un idioma?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"You bullied other bullies,"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"she’d always been less of a shit-talker and more of a shit-thinker"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"At least I know where the hell I am and what’s happening. Which way is north?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

Similar categories in Sheila Heti's Pure Colour book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• fiction
• contemporary
• novels
• adult
• audiobook

"And what opens one heart opens many."

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

"The body becomes a woman and it cannot turn back."

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

"And a glimpse into one heart is a glimpse into many."

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

"Why did it seem like the only way to live-was to disobey?"

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

Similar categories in Elif Batuman's Either/Or book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• literary fiction
• literature
• fiction
• contemporary
• womens
• novels
• adult
• audiobook

"I'm going to become whatever I was going to become."

-Elif Batuman, Either/Or

"Fiona Apple's album made me more immediately depressed than any other music I remembered hearing."

-Elif Batuman, Either/Or

"That had probably been written by a professor. I recognized the professor's characteristic delight at not imparting information."

-Elif Batuman, Either/Or

"I was going to remember, or discover, where everything came from. I was going to do the subtle, monstrous thing where you figured out what you were doing, and why."

-Elif Batuman, Either/Or

Similar categories in Amina Cain's Indelicacy book and Rachel Cusk's Second Place

• art
• literary fiction
• fiction
• contemporary
• womens
• novels
• adult
• audiobook

"I hated March more than any other month, with its promises of warmth that never came"

-Amina Cain, Indelicacy

"I would listen to a bird cry, or the cat and the dog scratching around. In those moments I felt like a giant ear."

-Amina Cain, Indelicacy

"In books I found even more strongly my desire to write, to write back to them and their jagged, perfect words. I found life that ran close to my own"

-Amina Cain, Indelicacy

"Why is empty space a comfort and a relief? It's not because I project myself there; it's because I can't. It shows me my projections, but they haven't left my mind. Empty space remains empty, always.…"

-Amina Cain, Indelicacy