The Lake

On New Year’s Eve, Taras Birsa, senior crime investigator at the Ljubljana Police Directorate, is on his way home from skiing on Mount Vogel above Lake Bohinj. Driving though a snowstorm, he comes across a girl who has discovered the body of a young woman in the river. Who is the victim? Who is the murderer? Was the perpetrator some crazy loner or was the unidentified woman eliminated as part of a larger plot? The Lake, award-winning Tadej Golob’s best-seller, has changed the way fiction is written and read in Slovenia. It has succeeded in intriguing a wide audience and managed to unify literary critics. The novel is set in recognizable surroundings around Slovenia – the picturesque Lake Bohinj and the daily routine of the capital, Ljubljana. The protagonist is a model family man and a police inspector with a reputation. He is also a former mountaineer and a sworn recreational sportsman, sometimes secretive, sometime impulsive, always thoughtful and amusing.