BookLife Review by Carol O'Day: A Town Called Solace (Mary Lawson, author)
small town Canada, missing teen, multiple points of view, 8 year old view of missing sibling, inheritance, loneliness, childlessness, secret past, parenting
If you have not yet discovered author Mary Lawson, there is no time like the present. Lawson is a gifted writer who writes poignant stories that weave their way into your heart without being saccharine and with tightly crafted characters. Among Lawson’s talents is creating complex characters through small details and characters’ behavior, rather than through exposition. (See BookLife’s prior review of Crow Lake, September 7, 2023).
Lawson’s A Town Called Solace opens through the eyes of Clara, an eight-year old girl living in Solace, a small town near Ontario, Canada. Clara’s world is upended when her older sister, Rosie, runs away. Clara is terrified. She develops a series of compulsive behaviors that she believes will cause her sister to return, including keepinga daily vigil at her house window to await Rosie’s return. Clara is deeply confused and annoyed by her parents’ indecipherable response to the crisis, and what she perceives as their lack of truthfulness with her. Mrs. Orchard, Ellen, is the kindly, elderly next-door neighbor and owner of a wily cat named Moses. When Mrs. Orchard must go to hospital, Clara is enlisted to feed and visit Moses. While Mrs. Orchard is away, to Clara’s dismay, a man unknown to Clara arrives at the house with boxes, moves in and begins to rearrange Mrs. Orchard’s belongings. Clara holds a key to Mrs. Orchard’s house and surreptitiously enters to feed Moses while Liam is out. Eventually Clara and Liam meet and it is he that tells her that Mrs. Orchard has died. With the blessing of Clara’s parents, who are consumed by the search for their older missing child, Clara visits Liam’s house regularly and she and Liam slowly bond over their parallel childhoods. Liam arrived in Solace as a temporary visitor but he establishes relationships that root him in Solace.
The novel is beautifully constructed. Lawson delivers the story using the rotating points of view of Clara, Liam and Mrs. Orchard. The interaction between Clara and Liam occur in the present day of the book. During her time in the hospital, Mrs. Orchard remembers and revisits the secrets of her past. The two stories both complement one another and intersect in meaningful ways. A Town Called Solace lingers in the mind with a satisfying sense of peace.
Purchase A Town Called Solace here