Clamor of the Lake begins with the appearance of an old fisherman of unknown origin sailing a black boat. Taciturn and enigmatic, he takes on a woman and her twin boys. Meanwhile, in a nearby village by the lake, Gomaa and his wife have found respite from the dreariness of their existence in the fantastic objects the sea churns up during gales but when the waves cast up a chest that speaks in a language no one can comprehend, Gomaa becomes haunted by its siren song. An accomplished experiment in the poetics of space. Hala Halim’s translation was Runner-up in the Banipal Arabic Literary Translation Prize 2006.