There's a Monster in the Lake by Laura Fernández (paperback)

A witty meditation revealing what our obsession with monsters says about wonder, reality, and narrative itself
 
What does the Loch Ness Monster tell us about belief, tourism, and the stories we need to survive? In this formally innovative essay, award-winning Spanish writer Laura Fernández travels to the Scottish Highlands to investigate the legend of Nessie and develops a perspective on humanity’s perpetual and sometimes destructive need to “discover.” From the 1933 sighting that launched a media sensation to the cast of monster hunters, fraudsters, and devotees who have perpetuated the story, Fernández unravels how we transform mystery into tourist attraction. Boarding a cruise ship on Loch Ness itself, she encounters a world where imagination and commerce collide.

But this is more than a travelogue. Fernández probes deeper: What does reality consist of and who is creating it? How is observing also living? In a world increasingly hostile to the fantastical, what does our relationship with Nessie reveal about how we inhabit reality itself?

Written with the punch of Douglas Adams and the ambition of Thomas Pynchon, There’s a Monster in the Lake is a brilliant meditation on monsters in the age of manufactured reality. Reminiscent of David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster, Fernández’s essay is both playful and philosophical, a celebration of imagination as the source of our humanity.
 
Laura Fernández is a writer, journalist, and critic. She is the author of six novels, the most recent of which won the Ojo Crítico de Narrativa Prize and the Finestres Prize for Narrative, among others. She writes for El País and lives in Barcelona.

Alexis Almeida is a poet and translator. She is the author of the poetry collection Caetano and the translator of Roberta Iannamico’s Many Poems. Almeida teaches at the Bard Microcollege at the Brooklyn Public Library and runs 18 Owls Press.
 
BISAC
Literary Collections / Essays
Literary Collections / European / Spanish & Portuguese
Literary Criticism / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Politics
Literary Collections / Women Authors
Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Historical Events
Literary Criticism / Women Authors