Book Salon
That They May Face the Rising Sun (By the Lake)
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This month we're reading That They May Face the Rising Sun (By the Lake) by John McGahern. Our faculty host is Eamonn Callan.
Listen to an interview with our Book Salon host.
"John McGahern has long been revered in Ireland as its greatest prose writer during the last half of the 20th century. But he is very little known in North America. That They May Face the Rising Sun is his exquisite last novel. It's quiet lyric beauty and deep sympathy for ordinary human lives is thoroughly representative of McGahern. If you want to do comparison with another you are familiar with, Chekhov comes as close as anyone."
How to Participate
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About this quarter's book selection
Said to be one of Ireland’s finest contemporary writers, John McGahern, has crafted a world perfectly capturing the speech, social ritual, and community interdependence of the rural Irish Midlands in That They May Face The Rising Sun (sold in the U.S. as By the Lake).
Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned to Ireland after a long exile in London. They settle in a small lakeside village, and immediately get caught up in the daily life of the local townsfolk. The social interactions, customs, and drama filled encounters quickly unfold, exposing characters of various controversies.
McGahern details the simplistic life of this farming community through beautiful flowing prose. Follow the Ruttledges through their tumultuous first year as they experience a complete representation of human existence.
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