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    Black Lake: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Black Lake: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Black Lake: A Novel
    Audiobook5 hours

    Black Lake: A Novel

    Written by Johanna Lane

    Narrated by John Lee

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A debut novel about a family losing grip of its legacy: a majestic house on the cliffs of Ireland.

    The Campbells have lived happily at Dulough--an idyllic, rambling estate isolated on the Irish seaside--for generations. But upkeep has drained the family coffers, and so John Campbell must be bold: to keep Dulough, he will open its doors to the public as a museum. He and his wife, daughter, and son will move from the luxury of the big house to a dank, small caretaker's cottage. The upheaval strains the already tenuous threads that bind the family and, when a tragic accident befalls them, long-simmering resentments and unanswered yearnings surface.

    As each character is given a turn to speak, their voices tell a complicated, fascinating story about what happens when the upstairs becomes the downstairs, and what legacy is left when family secrets are revealed.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateMay 20, 2014
    ISBN9781619695092
    Unavailable
    Black Lake: A Novel

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    Reviews for Black Lake

    3.5/5

    24 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I was asked to review this by the publication date (end of May) and I had read it by then but froze up when trying to think of what to say about this book. It's one that deserves reflection and pieces of it will stay with the reader for a long time.Have you heard of the Piatt Castles? They're in a serene part of Ohio and one of the castles was opened up for tours in 1912 while the family was still living in it. The Piatt family certainly had its ups and downs. If there were any tragedies like the Campbell family, the Piatt's have kept them hidden from public view and prying eyes. While I recently walked through these castles from the 1800s it was easy to reflect on the differences and similarities between the real and fictional families.Both families have intertwined fates with their estates. Both have been faced with how much of their home should be turned over to the public and what improvements/updates should be made to retain the integrity of the original build while adding to the comfort of the residents.This was one of my memorable reads of 2014.
    • 3/5
      Really this only just scraped in 3 stars. It had potential, but most of hat was unrealised. The basic idea and structure of the story was appealing to me. I liked the setting - the time and place. I liked the slightly mysterious feeling. Where the book fell down, from my point of view, was the failure of Ms Lane to really develop the main characters into people who were fully believable and whose actions were explicable at some level deeper than some vague genetic or family inheritance. I probably wouldn't exclude Johanna Lane from my reading list after this, but I'd be reading with a clear plan to bail out if the story wasn't grabbing me by 50 pages or so
    • 2/5
      This is a quick read and you know from the beginning the ending. It's a story of loss. The Campbells no longer have the financial means for the upkeep of the Dulough, the family home, a secret John Campbell keeps from his wife for most of their marriage so they're moved into a cottage that is built on the estate which they still own but the Irish government manages. Their young son makes a hut for himself on an island that also belongs to the estate and drowns trying to swim to it after being scolded in front of tourists for helping himself to a Coca-Cola on opening day. The history of John Campbell's family, and not the version he made up for tourists, I found more interesting than John, Marianne and their children as they seemed more better developed characters then their descendents
    • 4/5
      3.5 The castle of Dulough, located on the sea in Northern Ireland in Donegal is the setting for this novel. The Campbell have lived here for generations, after the house was built by a not very nice ancestor. It is told in four voices, the voices of the family now, living there. John Campbell can no longer keep up with the cost of running the estate and though he maintains ownership, the family moves to a cottage on the property and he opens the castle to visitors.When one's whole identity is associated with a house, a way of life, with a whole history pressing down upon them, what then happens when they loose this? That is the crux of the story. It is a quiet story, simply and elegantly told, very atmospheric and descriptive. The grounds and the house, are the main characters. The Campbell just the latest passing through. There is a tragedy and many, many adjustments to be made. "Its not difficult to think of the house as a consciousness, a repository of events, the breath whistling through the walls, our lives playing over and over again in its memory. This is as close as I get to ghosts.Although Marianne, the mother, married into the family she too feels the weight of the house as the above quote exemplifies. I am sure many in the modern day are going through these same types of changes, selling of lands, opening houses the public, so I found the story of this family very current. I did find the ending a bit anti-climatic but this is how many times exactly how it goes. '
    • 5/5
      Black Lake is the English translation of Dulough, the house where the Campbell family have lived since the mid-1800s. The current owner, John, is in financial difficulties and agrees a deal with the Irish government that they will take over the running of the house and turn it into a tourist attraction with a visitor centre, restaurant and minibuses of people coming to walk around his and his family's home. John, his wife Marianne, and their children, Kate and Philip, move into a cottage on the estate, but not long after a tragedy befalls them.This is a very lyrical and atmospheric read. The prologue is quite odd in that no names are mentioned and I wasn't sure at that point if I would be able to get on with the book, but then I started the rest of the book and got really stuck into it. I read it in two large chunks (it's a fairly short book) and I think that's the way to tackle it as it would really lose flow if read in short bursts.As the reader, I got a real sense of the house and the estate and this aspect was very well-written. I was also able to understand how devastating it was for the family to not only give up their home but then to have strangers tramping all over it.I really enjoyed this book. It's descriptive and gentle and was a pleasure to read.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this quiet atmospheric debut novel about a Donegal house and the family that live there. Dulough (Gaelic for Black Lake) is a house with delusions of grandeur built by an unscrupulous Scotsman (Philip the First) in the 19th century, in the shadow of Donegal's highest mountains Errigal and Dooish by a black lake near the sea. Most of the book takes place in the recent past. The current owner of the house is John, who is unable to maintain the house and is forced to accept a deal with the government in which he and his family have to move into a smaller cottage while the house is made into a tourist attraction. The first chapter is quite dramatic - John's daughter Kate has been taken out of school by her mother Marianne, who locks them into the house's grand but never used ballroom using the only key, and holds her captive there for several weeks. In this chapter we also learn a little of the history - we hear about Kate's dead brother Philip and that there are tourists below. The next section alternates between the perspectives of John and Philip - John is preoccupied by the process of opening the house and Philip is trying to escape the upheaval by building a den on the estate's island, which is only accessible at low tide and contains a ruined church and the family graveyard. John also writes a family history for the tourists that includes a few embellishments.The third part is an extended chapter from Marianne's perspective - we learn about her marriage, her difficulties finding a role on the estate and her problems communicating with John. She discovers the diaries of Philip the First's widow, which are related in some detail and contradict John's version of the story The final part is a short postscript and partial resolution.The story is very strong on atmosphere - Lane admits that Dulough is loosely based on a real place (Glenveagh) and some of the family story corresponds to its history, notably the eviction of tenants to make space for the house and improve its view. It is also very strong on family dynamics - both John and Marianne are well-meaning but they are unable to communicate, and Philip's perspective is well realised too. Quite an old-fashioned book but an enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      Lane is a masterful dancer. She leads off with a chapter in which it is clear that things in the lives of the Campbell family are a mess. Then she leads us back, to slowly explore how things fell apart, giving each character time to step to the front of the stage and tell her tale. It is a beautiful dance of a book.
    • 4/5
      An ancestral mansion lived in by many generations of the same family, some secrets, a dysfunctional family. Black Lake is a contemporary take on the classic Irish Big House novel. At the beginning of the novel, a girl’s mother takes her to occupy the ballroom in their former home, Dulough.Black Lake begins with the aftermath of a tragedy. The rest of the story is told from several narrative points of view, that of the girl, Kate, her brother Philip, her father and mother. I really liked being able to read about events from each character’s perspective.Johanna Lane skilfully evokes the atmosphere of the place and the stories of the family, creating a powerful and moving debut novel.
    • 4/5
      Black Lake, Johanna Lane Little, Brown & Company978-0-316-22883-1Submitted by the publisher$25.00, 224 pgs“…there had to be unsaid things between husbands and wives, and he had learnt that, though these were the things that saved you, they separated you too.” - John CampbellThe main character in Black Lake by Johanna Lane is not a person; it’s a house. But the word “house” doesn’t do justice to Dulough. A castle estate set on the Irish cliffs of the North Atlantic, Dulough is a concept. The Campbell family, father John, mother Marianne, and the children Katherine and Philip, live at Dulough (“black lake” in Irish). It has been in the Campbell family for 150 years. When funds run precipitously low due to, it seems, general lassitude on John’s part, he does the unthinkable: he allows the government to run Dulough as a museum for tourists, which will pay for needed repairs to the property. In return, John receives a salary for the first time in his life and the government builds a small cottage for the family alongside the caretaker’s cottage. When the “upstairs becomes the downstairs” neither is on sure footing. The ensuing turmoil allows the existing faults in all of these relationships to shift, with tragic consequences.Fast forward six months: twelve-year-old Katherine Campbell finds herself locked in the top floor ballroom of Dulough with her mother Marianne. Marianne is the one with the key but she doesn’t want to leave. She has, however, taken leave of her senses. "It was after the snow that the mother began to talk about the girl’s brother as if he were still with them. One morning, as the girl did her lessons, her mother said, 'I’d like you two to have this finished by lunch.'The girl’s heart jumped. But it was a tiny word, two – a slip of the tongue, perhaps."Moving back and forth in time, between an omniscient narrator and the members of the Campbell family, has the same result as a game of telephone. Each narrative includes the same ingredients, the same information, but the different perspectives become a disjointed truth. The character on whom the future of this family hinges is the last to speak. Marianne Campbell will fill in the blanks left by her children and an obtuse, ineffectual husband. Black Lake is author Johanna Lane’s debut novel. She grew up in Ireland and now makes her home in New York City. Lane is either an empath or else she remembers better than most how it feels to be a child. She is a genius at conveying both the brutal, inexorable logic and the free-association of a child’s mind. “The men were older than his father; they had deep lines in their faces. Like valleys, Philip thought. He imagined tiny glaciers settling into their skin, the ice cracking and expanding. They had been doing glaciated valleys in Geography.” And this: “He thought about the man who hadn’t flinched when Mrs. Connolly poured tea on the back of his hand. He wouldn’t have much tolerance for children who didn’t do what they were told. Philip imagined the man pouring teapot after teapot onto his outstretched hands. And him not being allowed to flinch, either.The Irish countryside is also a character in this tale, the environment wild and formidable, the atmosphere thick with foreboding. Lane also possesses a gift for description. “The wind was already in the gardens, the tops of the trees bent as if they were straining to talk to each other and straining to hear.” And this: “A ring of yew trees encircled the churchyard, a sign that his family believed they were going to heaven. But the trees had the opposite effect. It was dark under their canopy, even in the middle of the day. The roots curled themselves into the graves and the branches twisted into the contortions of the wind.”Like all good Irish tales, the theme of social justice haunts the place. During her turn, Marianne, upon discovery of the family diaries John has hidden away, will tell you the history.“John had never thought of his family as privileged. They had lived in a grand house, yes, but they’d had no luxuries. And yet he realized now that he had been spoilt. He had been brought up to think that there would always be enough money, magically there, because people like them always had enough. It was unthinkable that they would have to compromise themselves to accept a job they didn’t want, a job that might take them away from Dulough, a patch of Ireland they had a right to.”Black Lake is ready to inherit a place amid the long and strong tradition of family dramas set in the great Gothic homes of Irish history.Bonus: you can check out Johanna Lane's photographic inspiration for Black Lake on her Pinterest page.