By the Lake: ALA Notable Books for Adults

The characters in By the Lake include the Ruttledges, who have forsaken the glitter of London to raise sheep and cattle, gossip-mongering Jamesie Murphy, handsome John Quinn -- perennially on the lookout for a new wife -- as well as the gruff self-made magnate known as "the Shah." Through the course of a year, John McGahern unveils their passions and regrets, their uneasy relationship with the modern world and their ancient intimacy with death. And he creates a novel at once lyrical and slyly comic, earthy, melancholy, and transcendently lovely.