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Excellent writing, of course, plus biting humor and a fun story (it's especially enjoyable having Jason Isaacs narrate the audiobook). There are so many great touches beyond the art theft/murder mystery plot itself, like the women's voices that Jackson has internalized; when that "Court of Women" cocked its collective eyebrow at one of his questionable notions, causing him to pause and reframe his thinking, I laughed out loud. I was very fond of some of the other characters, too, including Ben (Kindness to others, his greatest failing in his own eyes, forced him to put on a brave face) and also Simon the vicar, who is made fun of (paddling in the intellectual shallows) but also portrayed quite sympathetically - I really enjoyed his memory of trying to go on a pilgrimage and ending up with a group of Texas students who knew the Scriptures better than he did (don't miss Jason Isaacs doing the Texas accent!).

I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller (although it's not the "action-packed" type) set in rural France and focused on a commune known as Le Moulin. The espionage plot provides a framework for the cold-hearted protagonist (assumed name: Sadie Smith) and certain others (primarily Bruno Lacombe, via his intercepted emails to the Moulinards) to make proclamations and observations about various aspects of life, such as art, political activism, self-identity, oppression, Neanderthals, and the night sky.

There are many indelible scenes and stories within the story - e.g., Bruno's memory of playing with other boys and taking the helmet of a dead Nazi soldier they came across; Sadie observing the sexist division of labor in the commune; the history of the Cagot; Bruno hearing voices in his cave; and a seafaring tale about an 18th-century Polynesian.

Here's just one of many passages that made an impression on me: "When you look at stars, Bruno said, you merge into the flow of time, the right-now and the before and the to-come." Actually, I thought some of the writing about the stars connected well to Samantha Harvey's Orbital, which I read recently.

Usually I try to avoid audiobooks narrated by the author, but I'm glad I listened to this one. Kushner's straightforward delivery works perfectly with the book's dry humor.