The Lake. (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, and Thought. Translation Series)

The Lake is an intricately plotted and fast-paced story of multiple crimes. Its central plot revolves around Paul Eck, a traveling representative for a pharmaceutical company. His precarious search for an unloved but locally prominent father and for his own better self leads this reluctant hero into dangerous misapprehensions and potentially fatal situations. Traumatic memories return as he drives back to the places of his childhood. Conflicting opinions assault his disordered mind as he encounters the various people who inhabit a popular resort area along the Hungarian border, including those who are professionally attracted to a murder scene. In a series of snapshot portraits Roth ties the process of Eck's self-exploration to a confrontation with social attitudes. Written in an intensely realistic style with ironic touches, he makes persuasive use of what defines the literary appeal of the crime novel: subtle psychology, inquisitive intelligence, and sanguinary violence that sustain an interplay of the mysterious with the plausible and hold out hope for final understanding.