By the Lake: ALA Notable Books for Adults -- John McGahern, Paperback

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.

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

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 04/27/2003 pg. 28
Commonweal 06/18/2004 pg. 28

About the Author
John McGahern was the author of five highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories. His novel Amongst Women won the GPA Book Award and the Irish Times Award, was short-listed for the Booker Prize, and was made into a four-part BBC television series. He had been a visiting professor at Colgate University and at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and was the recipient of the Society of Authors' Award, the American-Irish Award, and the Prix Étrangère Ecureuil, among other awards and honors. His work appeared in anthologies and was translated into many languages. He died in 2006.