In this haunting, evocative novel, a middle-aged man returns home after thirty years, seeking forgiveness for his role in a violent boyhood tragedy.

When his grandmother's death follows hard upon the suicide of a patient, Christian Fowler sets off for the bleak Ohio coal town where he grew up. Upon returning to the wintry landscape of his childhood, he confronts a series of past events that culminated in brutal tragedy. As he attempts to put his grandmother's affairs in order, Fowler soon becomes obsessed with finding the boy whom, years earlier, he'd unwittingly betrayed.

Shuttling back and forth in time, The Boy in the Lake tracks a search that grows increasingly desperate as Fowler comes up against vivid reminders of his tortured friendship with a boy with a questionable history. This story from long ago develops with exquisite subtlety, and past and present ultimately collide when the two meet as men and come to grips with an event as stark and sudden as the heart of childhood itself. Devoid of melodrama, the disturbing climax will unsettle readers long after they've finished the book. The degree of redemption Swanson allows his characters does not come easily or completely, forcing readers to grapple with the nature of responsibility and the difficulty of forgiveness. In spare yet richly textured prose, Eric Swanson weaves a mesmerizing tale of sacrifice and betrayal. As it explores the ferocity of love and the burdens of guilt, The Boy in the Lake unfolds as a quietly stunning novel from a young writer of great promise.