A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson - #bookreview

 

There were four boxes. Big Ones. They must have lots of things in them because they were heavy, you could tell by the way the man walked when he carried them in, stooped over, knees bent. He brought them right into Mrs Orchard's house, next door to Clara's, that first evening and put them on the floor in the living room and just left them there...

***

Clara's sister is missing. Angry, rebellious Rose had a row with their mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Seven-year-old Clara, isolated by her distraught parents' efforts to protect her from the truth, is grief-stricken and bewildered.

Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, moves into the house next door, a house left to him by an old woman he can barely remember, and within hours gets a visit from the police. It seems he's suspected of a crime.

At the end of her life Elizabeth Orchard is thinking about a crime too, one committed thirty years ago that had tragic consequences for two families and in particular for one small child. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies.

A Town Called Solace explores the relationships of these three people brought together by fate and the mistakes of the past. By turns gripping and darkly funny, it uncovers the layers of grief and remorse and love that connect us, but shows that sometimes a new life is possible.

***

Many years ago, I read Mary Lawson's novel, Crow Lake. This was prior to me even joining Good Reads which I did in 2008. I cannot really remember much about it, other than that I really enjoyed it, and I notice that at some point I have marked it for a re-read on Good Reads.

A Town Called Solace was suggested as this month's read at my Book Club. I was very keen to read it and it lived up to all of my expectations.

The story is told from three different perspectives. The book starts with seven year old Clara, whose sixteen year old sister, Rose, has gone missing. We also have chapters dedicated to Liam and to Elizabeth Orchard, the neighbour of Clara. These three characters are superbly depicted with distinct voices. There was never any doubt regarding which character I was reading. Each of the three characters were facing challenges in their lives, and they interweaved with one another perfectly.

I enjoyed reading about the secondary characters too, each with a part to play with helping to move the story along. Equally well portrayed and with a hand in helping Clara, Liam and Mrs. Orchard towards the healing which they each need.

Set in the fictional town of Solace, Canada, Ms Lawson has captured the small town feel extremely well. The sometimes claustrophobic nature of such a place is wonderfully depicted and it was easy to think that this place was real. Of course, it was just that the author understood and portrayed the experience of living in a small town so well.

This is one of the best novels I have read this year.  I read a library copy of it but am seriously considering buying a copy as it would be a pleasure just to have this on my shelf, with the prospect of reading again at some point.

A brilliant novel which I highly recommend.

ISBN: 978 1529113433

Publisher:  Vintage

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  304 (paperback)

About the Author:

Mary Lawson was born and brought up in the small farming community of Blackwell, near Sarnia, Ontario. Her family had a summer cottage in northern Ontario, in an area of lakes and rocks and forests known as the Canadian Shield. It remains, Lawson says, her favourite landscape, and it has played a major role in her writing.

After graduating from McGill University in Montreal she went to England for a holiday, ran out of money, had to find a job, fell in love with a colleague and married him. They have two sons and live in Kingston upon Thames, near London.

Lawson began writing when her children went to school. For some years she dabbled with short stories, which she sold to women’s magazines, but it wasn’t until she set one of those stories in Canada and was advised by an editor to turn it into a novel that she finally found her voice and discovered what she wanted to write about.

Crow Lake, her first novel, published when Lawson was 55, sold in 28 countries. It spent 75 weeks on the bestseller list in Canada, won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, was a New York Times bestseller and was chosen as a Book of the Year by the New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Washington Post and The Globe and Mail. The Other Side of the Bridge, her second novel, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and was a Richard and Judy Summer Read in the UK.  Road Ends, published to critical acclaim in 2014, was a top-ten bestseller, described by the New York Times as “tender and surprising.. a vivid and evocative tale”.

Lawson’s fourth novel, A Town Called Solace, published in February 2021, is another top-ten best seller getting rave reviews, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

(author media courtesy of her website http://www.marylawson.ca/bio/)

(all opinions are my own)