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The excerpt begins with an invitation to lunch in London featuring a billionaire whose projects range from software for risk prediction to plans for large-scale renewable infrastructure, while his personal life is equally extravagant. Travel scenes at Heathrow introduce a silent, ritual-like atmosphere aboard the plane and shift into intimate conversation. 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For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com](MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com).  \nLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data  \nCusk, Rachel, 1967–  \nOutline: a novel / Rachel Cusk.  \npages cm  \nISBN 978-0-374-22834-7 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-374-71236-5 (e-book)  \n1. English teachers—Fiction. I. Title.  \nPR6053 .U825 O68 2015 823'.914—dc23  \n2014016969  \n[www.fsgbooks.com](www.fsgbooks.com)  \n[www.twitter.com/fsgbooks](www.twitter.com/fsgbooks) • [www.facebook.com/fsgbooks](www.facebook.com/fsgbooks)  \nContents  \nCover  \nChapter I  \nChapter II  \nChapter III  \nChapter IV  \nChapter V  \nChapter VI  \nChapter VII  \nChapter VIII  \nChapter IX  \nChapter X  \nA Note About the Author  \nAlso by Rachel Cusk  \nI  \nBefore the flight I was invited for lunch at a London club with a billionaire I’d been promised had liberal credentials. He talked in his open-necked shirt about the new software he was developing, that could help organisations identify the employees most likely to rob and betray them in the future. We were meant to be discussing a literary magazine he was thinking of starting up: unfortunately I had to leave before we arrived at that subject. He insisted on paying for a taxi to the airport, which was useful since I was late and had a heavy suitcase.  \nThe billionaire had been keen to give me the outline of his life story, which had begun unprepossessingly and ended – obviously – with him being the relaxed, well-heeled man who sat across the table from me today. I wondered whether in fact what he wanted now was to be a writer, with the literary magazine as his entrée. A lot of people want to be writers: there was no reason to think you couldn’t buy your way into it. This man had bought himself in, and out, of a great many things. He mentioned a scheme he was working on, to eradicate lawyers from people’s personal lives. He was also developing a blueprint for a floating wind farm big enough to accommodate the entire community of people needed to service and run it: the gigantic platform could be located far out to sea, thus removing the unsightly turbines from the stretch of coast where he was hoping to pilot the proposal and where, incidentally, he owned a house. On Sundays he played drums ina rock band, just for fun. He was expecting his eleventh child, which wasn’tas bad as it sounded when you considered that he and his wife had once adopted quadruplets from Guatemala. I was finding it difficult to assimilate  \neverything I was being told. The waitresses kept bringing more things, oysters, relishes, special wines. He was easily distracted, like a child with too many Christmas presents. But when he put me in the taxi he said, enjoy yourself in Athens, though I didn’t remember telling him that was where I was going.  \nOn the tarmac at Heathrow the planeful of people waited silently to betaken into the air. The air hostess stood in the aisle and mimed with her props as the recording played. We were strapped into our seats, a field of strangers, in a silence like the silence of a congregation while the liturgy is read. She showed us the life jacket with its little pipe, the emergency exits, the oxygen mask dangling from a length of clear tubing. She led us through the possibility of death and disaster, as the priest leads the congregation through the details of purgatory and hell; and no one jumped up to escape while there was still time. Instead we listened or half-listened, thinking about other things, as though some special hardness had been bestowed onus by this coupling of formali","cbCaiaBgdBHsI4lJ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiaBgdBHsI4lJ","pdf",1086453,173,"English","# Contents\n## Cover\n## Chapter I\n## Chapter II\n## Chapter III\n## Chapter IV\n## Chapter V\n## Chapter VI\n## Chapter VII\n## Chapter VIII\n## Chapter IX\n## Chapter X\n## A Note About the Author\n## Also by Rachel Cusk","[{\"question\":\"What is the main narrative setup in the opening part of “Outline”?\",\"answer\":\"The opening centers on Rachel Cusk’s narrator leaving a London club after lunch with a billionaire, whose plans and personal life prompt speculation about writing and influence.\"},{\"question\":\"What happens during the departure scenes at Heathrow?\",\"answer\":\"On the tarmac, passengers receive flight-safety instructions in a quiet, solemn manner, heightening the sense of formality and foreboding.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the excerpt connect travel to the story’s themes?\",\"answer\":\"Conversation during the flight links the narrator’s visit to Athens with reflections on uncertainty, perception, and the unexpected ways fate can seem to prompt choices.\"}]","Outline - A Novel - Chapter I to X | PDF",266]