Title:
The Lake
Genre:
Literature
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Binding:
Paperback
Narrative:
Third Person
Type of Book:
Fiction
Number of Pages:
313
Number of Chapters:
77
Date Added:
2018-06-26 16:28:20
Synopsis:
‘The Lake’ is an exquisite first novel that marks the arrival of a masterful new voice in fiction.
Gifted young philosopher Zachary Brannagan decides he can no longer find meaning in intellectual abstractions. So, in homage to his hero Nietzsche, he lies down in the middle of a road to die. But Zach’s suicide attempt fails, compelling him instead to confront the world around him head-on.
Embarking upon a cross-country journey, ostensibly to unravel the mystery of his birth, he is brutally assaulted, and, seeking to be healed, he finds himself at The Lake, a kind of ad hoc orphanage in the dark heart of the Louisiana wilderness. It is run by Anna Beauchamp, an earthy woman who lives in self-imposed exile with her ‘charges’: eleven physically and mentally impaired children, the most precious of them being the mysterious and mute Samuel. Zach and Anna stir in one another an emotional awareness that neither has known before. But in this haunting, sublime novel, the price of love is tragedy.
‘The Lake’ is a raw, haunting story of rare emotional intensity. By the end, i felt both demolished and enriched. The tragedy of this novel is as redolent with beauty as its most tender moment.
As the story unfolds, this already engrossing drama of sadness and redemption is elevated to an even higher level by the author’s poetic sensibility, which conveys to the most ordinary things a rare lustre and warmth... A literary feast.
Gifted young philosopher Zachary Brannagan decides he can no longer find meaning in intellectual abstractions. So, in homage to his hero Nietzsche, he lies down in the middle of a road to die. But Zach’s suicide attempt fails, compelling him instead to confront the world around him head-on.
Embarking upon a cross-country journey, ostensibly to unravel the mystery of his birth, he is brutally assaulted, and, seeking to be healed, he finds himself at The Lake, a kind of ad hoc orphanage in the dark heart of the Louisiana wilderness. It is run by Anna Beauchamp, an earthy woman who lives in self-imposed exile with her ‘charges’: eleven physically and mentally impaired children, the most precious of them being the mysterious and mute Samuel. Zach and Anna stir in one another an emotional awareness that neither has known before. But in this haunting, sublime novel, the price of love is tragedy.
‘The Lake’ is a raw, haunting story of rare emotional intensity. By the end, i felt both demolished and enriched. The tragedy of this novel is as redolent with beauty as its most tender moment.
As the story unfolds, this already engrossing drama of sadness and redemption is elevated to an even higher level by the author’s poetic sensibility, which conveys to the most ordinary things a rare lustre and warmth... A literary feast.
Author:
Daniel Villasenor
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Publisher:
Faber and Faber
Publication Date:
2000-02-01
Language:
English
Date Added:
2018-06-26 16:28:20
