Breathtaking in its sensuous originality and metaphoric power, The Lake is the story of Zach Brannagan, a graduate student of philosophy in the midst of a nervous breakdown. He finds himself in the care of Michael Lazar, a psychiatrist who coaxes Zach to health with contraband delicacies from his wife's kitchen and a homespun, probing intelligence. Lazar propels Zach on a cross-country journey to unravel the mysteries of his bloodlines that instead lead him to The Lake, an orphanage in the dark heart of the Louisiana wilderness, and to its proprietor Anna Beauchamp and her most precious charge, the mysterious and mute boy, Samuel. Haunting and sublime, The Lake examines the relationship between absurdity and sanity, poetry and philosophy in rich, muscular, and masterful prose.