The linked stories of Lake Song, set in the fictional town of Kinder Falls in New York’s Finger Lakes region, span decades to plumb the complexities, violence, and compassion of small-town life as the twentieth century hurtles forward.

Against a backdrop of historical events—bootlegging, Klan attacks, gold smuggling, the Albany Ketchup Murders, the 1965 Northeast blackout—a generations-long mystery unwinds.

Spiritualists, grifters, sugar makers, arsonists, seekers, and saleswomen wind through each other’s lives and across decades to add layers of resonance to each captivating story. The mercurial lake that unites the people of Kinder Falls sustains as much as it haunts, both witness and diary.

MY OTHER BOOKS (which I'm also happy to talk about):

 

If you are a group of 5 or 55, if you meet in a living room, on Zoom, in a coffeeshop or on a patio, I am happy to come talk about my books with you. I'm in Boston, so most places in New England are within reach for me. Outside the area or in other countries, we can Zoom.

Email me at lesley.bannatyne@gmail.com and let's set up a visit.

And if it's helpful:

Download the Lake Song DISCUSSION GUIDE

BUY LAKE SONG

PRAISE FOR LAKE SONG:

[An] insightful, often drily witty novel-in-stories...All of these finely crafted stories are haunted...not just by the dead by by missed connections, bungled romances, links broken between parents and children. These well-wrought miniatures add up to an engrossing multifamily epic. -Kirkus

This book dazzles and surprises, from line to line, page to page, and decade to decade over the course of these finely wrought characters’ lives.
—Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

These profoundly linked stories are masterful and moving, and I am in awe of the vibrant, delightfully cohesive, and absolutely real world Lesley Bannatyne has created in this tour de force.
—Daphne Kalotay, author of The Archivists 

A masterpiece of literary eloquence, originality, and historical fiction, Lake Song showcases author Lesley Bannatyne's genuine flair for the kind of richly enhanced and narrative driven storytelling style that keeps the reader's rapt and fully engaged attention from beginning to end. —Midwest Book Review