Who Is Rachel Cusk’s New Book Really About?
This article explores the ethical boundaries of autofiction through the work of author Rachel Cusk. It examines how Cusk's use of real-life figures in her novels has led to public controversy and legal challenges.
Why it matters
It highlights the ongoing tension between artistic license and the privacy rights of individuals depicted in literature.
The author’s latest novel goes a step further than the autofiction that made her famous.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Antonio Borga / Eurasia Sport Images / Getty. August 25, 2026, 7:30 AM ET Share Save A few months ago, I traveled to a new city in a foreign country to talk about a book I’d written. At lunch one day, my host told me about a publishing acquaintance of hers who’d hosted the writer Rachel Cusk some years back, only to find herself seemingly replicated later, in cartoonish and (she felt) unflattering form, within one of the books in Cusk’s Outline trilogy. The woman was apparently devastated; although Cusk had withheld some details, the portrait, according to its presumptive subject, was specific and precise enough that anyone who knew her and read the book would immediately recognize the person being portrayed.
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