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Es el último verano en la casa junto al lago, donde la familia Sterling se reunía durante las vacaciones. Richard y Lisa, para asombro de sus hijos, Michael y Thad, han decidido venderla. Van a jubilarse y mudarse a Florida. Es el primer indicio extraño; ellos, que fueron hippies y son profesores en la prestigiosa Universidad de Cornell, planean un retiro anodino y convencional. Algo falla bajo la límpida superficie cotidiana, y está surgiendo. Pero nadie imaginó lo que sucedería después. Un accidente en la playa deriva en una tragedia; una muerte que invoca a otra, ocultada durante décadas. Esa herida secreta sigue abierta; revela un pasado traumático e ilumina con luz impiadosa el presente. El alcoholismo de Michael, que siempre se ha negado a tener hijos, y ahora, con su esposa Diana embarazada, se encuentra al borde del divorcio; la vida sin destino de Thad, que ambiciona ser poeta, y vive de Jake, su novio; los silencios culpables de Richard y Lisa. Infidelidades, fracasos amorosos, proyectos aplazados; en un fin de semana decisivo, lo que cada uno creía ser se ha puesto en tela de juicio. Con una prosa intensa y una capacidad asombrosa para asumir la perspectiva de cada personaje, Vida de lago es una arrolladora y emocionante novela familiar. Como ya demostrara en los cuentos de su libro El cielo de los animales, David James Poissant tiene un talento singular para detectar el momento clave: cuando deben asumirse las deudas con los sueños de juventud, para que el futuro sea algo más que los errores acumulados en el pasado.

From the award-winning author of the acclaimed story collection The Heaven of Animals, called “a wise debut…beautiful [stories] with a rogue touch” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a sweeping, domestic novel about a family that reunites at their North Carolina lake house for one last vacation before the home is sold—and the long-buried secrets that are finally revealed. The Starling family is scattered across the country. Parents Richard and Lisa live in Ithaca, New York, and work at Cornell University. Their son Michael, a salesperson, lives in Dallas with his elementary school teacher wife, Diane. Michael's brother, Thad, an aspiring poet, makes his home in New York City with his famous painter boyfriend, Jake. For years they've traveled to North Carolina to share a summer vacation at the family lake house. That tradition is coming to an end, as Richard and Lisa have decided to sell the treasured summer home and retire to Florida. Before they do, the family will spend one last weekend at the lake. But what should to be a joyous farewell takes a nightmarish turn when the family witnesses a tragedy that triggers a series of dramatic revelations among the Starlings—alcoholism, infidelity, pregnancy, and a secret the parents have kept from their sons for over thirty years. As the weekend unfolds, relationships fray, bonds are tested, and the Starlings are forced to reckon with who they are and what they want from this life. Set in today's America, Lake Life is a beautifully rendered, emotionally compelling novel in the tradition of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, and Ann Patchett's Commonwealth.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK Once in a great while a writer comes along who can truly capture the drama and passion of the life of a family. David James Duncan, author of the novel The River Why and the collection River Teeth, is just such a writer. And in The Brothers K he tells a story both striking and in its originality and poignant in its universality. This touching, uplifting novel spans decades of loyalty, anger, regret, and love in the lives of the Chance family. A father whose dreams of glory on a baseball field are shattered by a mill accident. A mother who clings obsessively to religion as a ward against the darkest hour of her past. Four brothers who come of age during the seismic upheavals of the sixties and who each choose their own way to deal with what the world has become. By turns uproariously funny and deeply moving, and beautifully written throughout, The Brothers K is one of the finest chronicles of our lives in many years. Praise for The Brothers K “The pages of The Brothers K sparkle.”—The New York Times Book Review “Duncan is a wonderfully engaging writer.”—Los Angeles Times “This ambitious book succeeds on almost every level and every page.”—USA Today “Duncan's prose is a blend of lyrical rhapsody, sassy hyperbole and all-American vernacular.”—San Francisco Chronicle “The Brothers K affords the... deep pleasures of novels that exhaustively create, and alter, complex worlds.... One always senses an enthusiastic and abundantly talented and versatile writer at work.”—The Washington Post Book World “Duncan... tells the larger story of an entire popular culture struggling to redefine itself—something he does with the comic excitement and depth of feeling one expects from Tom Robbins.”—Chicago Tribune