In a bold departure from the realism of her earlier work, Cusk’s eighth novel, Outline, used a series of ten conversations to tell the story of a woman recently separated from her husband and struggling to work out just who she might be on her own. Cusk’s sequel, the second volume in a projected trilogy, starts with Faye’s return to London. Still adjusting to life on her own, Faye feels her way forward by renovating a dilapidated apartment, a process that exposes the promises and perils of change as well as showing her what she’s helpless to undo. Marked by Cusk’s restrained prose, this is a haunting and deeply philosophical study of identity and fate.