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A town called solace  Cover Image Book Book

A town called solace / Mary Lawson.

Lawson, Mary, 1946- (author.).

Summary:

"As Solace opens, we meet a Northern Ontario family in crisis: their rebellious teenage daughter, Rose, has disappeared. Weeks have passed with no word, but still Rose's little sister, Clara, keeps a daily vigil at the living-room window, hoping that Rose will come back. Feisty and fierce, Clara is not only missing Rose; she is also missing her elderly friend and next-door neighbour, Mrs. Orchard, a retired schoolteacher who is away in hospital. While standing at the window, Clara keeps an eye out for Rose and an eye on Mrs. Orchard's house. Then, one afternoon, a strange young man in a strange car pulls into Mrs. Orchard's driveway and proceeds to move into the house as if he owns the place. Which it turns out he does: Mrs. Orchard has died and left it to him. Soon we discover that Clara's beloved Mrs. Orchard has a complicated and tragic past, and the real mystery at the heart of this novel is what happened between her and Liam, the man in the car. Solace is told in three distinct, compelling voices--Clara's, Mrs. Orchard's, and Liam's--cutting back and forth to carefully uncover the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect families, both the ones we're born into and the ones we choose, and steadily building towards an assured, heart-wrenching and (despite its losses) uplifting ending. A beautifully written, masterful, suspenseful and deeply humane novel by one of our great storytellers."--Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780735281271 (hardcover)
  • Physical Description: 292 pages ; 22 cm
  • Publisher: Toronto : Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2021.
Subject: Missing children > Fiction.
Sisters > Fiction.
Families > Fiction.
Neighbors > Fiction.
Grief > Fiction.
Small cities > Fiction.
Genre: Domestic fiction.
Bildungsromans.
Psychological fiction.

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Lakeshore Branch FIC Lawso 31681010228831 FICTION Available -

  • Baker & Taylor
    A novel told through three distinct points of view--a woman desperately hoping for the return of her rebellious teenage sister, who has been missing for weeks, her hospitalized neighbor, and the newly arrived stranger living in her neighbor's house--uncovers the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect families, both the ones people are born into and the ones they choose.
  • Random House, Inc.
    NATIONAL BESTSELLER
    LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 BOOKER PRIZE
    NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL, CBC BOOKS AND THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
     
    "I've been telling everyone I know about Mary Lawson . . . Each of her novels is just a marvel" —Anne Tyler

    New York Times bestselling author Mary Lawson, acclaimed for digging into the "wilderness of the human heart", is back after almost a decade with a fresh and timely novel that is different in subject but just as emotional and atmospheric as her beloved earlier work.


    A Town Called Solace, the brilliant and emotionally radiant new novel from Mary Lawson, her first in nearly a decade, opens on a family in crisis. Sixteen-year-old Rose is missing. Angry and rebellious, she had a row with her mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Left behind is seven-year-old Clara, Rose’s adoring little sister. Isolated by her parents’ efforts to protect her from the truth, Clara is bewildered and distraught. Her sole comfort is Moses, the cat next door, whom she is looking after for his elderly owner, Mrs. Orchard, who went into hospital weeks ago and has still not returned.
     
    Enter Liam Kane, mid-thirties, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, who moves into Mrs. Orchard’s house—where, in Clara’s view, he emphatically does not belong. Within a matter of hours he receives a visit from the police. It seems he is suspected of a crime.
     
    At the end of her life, Elizabeth Orchard is also thinking about a crime, one committed thirty years previously that had tragic consequences for two families, and in particular for one small child. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies.
     
    Told through three distinct, compelling points of view, the novel cuts back and forth among these unforgettable characters to uncover the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect them. A Town Called Solace is a masterful, suspenseful, darkly funny and deeply humane novel by one of our great storytellers.

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