“A contemporary writer of great promise whose book reads like a classic, debut novelist Lane skillfully demonstrates how grief both erodes and reinforces the bonds of a family. Her subtle, crystalline style calls to mind the prose of Colm Tóibín; her narrative pacing is reminiscent of Kate Chopin’s.” –- Library Journal (Starred Review) (US)

 

“[A] haunting debut...[that] glows with quiet grief.” -- Publishers Weekly (US)

 

“Masterful…. recalls Henry James.” -- The Rumpus (US)

 

“[An] elegant first novel... Lane’s earthy prose is well-suited for such an isolated setting, and she beautifully portrays the landscape of Donegal.” –- Booklist (US)

 

”Unsettling, impressively crafted…insightful about marriage, family, and why we hide things from people we love.” -- Book Riot (US)

 

“Sparkling… Lane describes the Campbells’ world with such simple, intense prose that the reader feels the claustrophobia of the small cottage, the wonder of the sea, the rate and tension that permeates the home.” -- Bustle (US)

 

"Award-Worthy Fiction." -- Library Journal (US)

 

“Exploring notions of family legacy and memory, Blake Lake is a poignant and haunting tale that really resonates.” -- Press Association (UK)

 

“Quiet novels like Black Lake don’t get much air-time, but it’s worth cutting through the noise and losing yourself in this gently devastating read.” -- Harper’s Bazaar (UK)

 

“Johanna Lane writes in an easy melodic style and she shows a real talent for understanding the separate sorrows and secret dreams that simmer beneath the surface of even the closest families.” -- Daily Mail (UK)

 

"[A] beautifully-written debut.” -- Fabulous Magazine,  Sun Newspaper (UK)

 

“A beautifully atmospheric and poignant debut.” -- Bella Magazine (UK)

 

“What won me over was the touching depiction of the two children.” -- Woman & Home Magazine (UK)

 

“Johanna Lane beguiles with her debut novel set in rural Ireland… It is not so much what happens that makes this story so remarkable, but the way in which it is written. Black Lake is deeply melancholic, and atmospheric...I look forward to reading more of her writing in the future.” -- Literature Works (UK)

 

"One of the Irish novelists of the future." -- Irish Times

 

"Lane‘s prose is graceful, textured and her elegant style reflects the Campbell's glazed retrograde world." -- Irish Independent

 

“A compelling and multidimensional tale.” -- Alison Potter, Irish Examiner

 

“I was gripped by this elegant, elegiac novel. Quite Wonderful!” -- Sue Leonard, Irish Examiner

 

”A poignant and haunting tale that really resonates.” -- Evening Echo (Ireland)

 

"We can expect to read much more from Johanna Lane in the future.” -- Books Ireland

 

“This ultimately becomes a story of the importance of home, whatever its history, told in highly lyrical prose.” -- Image Magazine (Ireland)

 

“I found I could not put this book down.” -- Woman’s Way Magazine (Ireland)

 

"A beautifully written story with unexpected twists." -- The Juice (New Zealand)

 

“Black Lake beautifully illuminates the gossamer filaments that bind a family to the land and to each other.” -- Charlotte Rogan

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"Black Lake is my favorite sort of book, a gripping story and a precise, insightful study of the inner lives and also daily lives of people to whom life has done its often brutal work. The setting, the circumstances, are odd and memorable. The emotions are recognizable, but no less memorable. Black Lake, quiet, deceptively simple, and deeply moving, will stay with me over time.” -- Robin Black

 

”In Black Lake Johanna Lane accomplishes the nearly miraculous: she paints the world of her story with such care and skill that, before you know it, it will feel more real than your own.  And you won‘t want to leave it.  In Lane‘s hands the smallest details bloom with meaning, the quietest moments resonate with the power of truth. They make this novel big. It takes on the largest of themes, the thunder-clap moments of life, wresting from them a wisdom rare in any writing, and simply remarkable in a debut. Bit by gentle bit, this beautiful book will break your heart.” -- Josh Weil

 

”I cannot tell you how moved I was by Black Lake... I turned the pages with such ease!  It was so beautifully written.  Again and again I was caught up by the precise but unpretentious prose.  I believed this story because of the voice, the voices, the details, the familiar yet strange things of these people's lives.... Lane conveys without any mawkishness the loss of this lovely place in the lives of this family, and the loss in all our lives of a childhood place wherever and whatever it was...” -- Shelia Kohler

 

”A lush, beguiling beauty, like the Ireland of its setting.  Novels like this one don‘t get written very often; when they do we remember why we love novels in the first place.” -- Elisa Albert

 

"[A] beautiful portrait of a family faced with unbearable loss.” --  John Burnside

 

”Johanna Lane‘s lovely novel is jeweled with shrewd insights into childhood and the way people relate to habitation and place. It's a book to admire and immerse yourself in.” -- Amit Chaudhuri