Furthermore, the Lake is an artfully disjointed novel whose narrator—too fearful of commitment to commit to a name—navigates a world where memory and dream intermingle. This constant blurring of both time and place suffuses his day-to-day life with uncertainty: an evening walk might last for seasons, and staff parties might never end. An existential crisis that arises when he orders scones leaves him dislocated in his own life. Through a series of semi-connected vignettes, he struggles to find his way back. This quest foregrounds an exploration of loss that cascades into a series of losses, as he traverses a Calvinoesque city, whose streets swap signs, that is emerging around him. Michael e. Casteels’ novel integrates prose poetry, lists, surrealism, shards of conventional narrative to create a deeply human story of contemporary urban alienation.