By the Lake: ALA Notable Books for Adults

With this magnificently assured new novel, John McGahern reminds us why he has been called the Irish Chekhov, as he guides readers into a village in rural Ireland and deftly, compassionately traces its natural rhythms and the inner lives of its people. Here are the Ruttledges, who have forsaken the glitter of London to raise sheep and cattle, gentle Jamesie Murphy, whose appetite for gossip both charms and intimidates his neighbors, handsome John Quinn, perennially on the look-out for a new wife, and the town's richest man, a gruff, self-made magnate known as "the Shah."

Following his characters through the course of a year, through lambing and haying seasons, market days and family visits, McGahern lays bare their passions and regrets, their uneasy relationship with the modern world, their ancient intimacy with death.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 04/08/2003
ISBN: 9780679744023
Pages: 352
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 8.12h x 5.28w x 0.72d
Award: ALA Notable Books - Winner

Review Citations: New York Times 04/27/2003 pg. 28
Commonweal 06/18/2004 pg. 28