A Town Called Solace: ‘Will break your heart’ Graham Norton

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Mrs. Orchard, aka Elizabeth, is in the hospital with a heart condition. Her narrations are thoughts to her deceased husband. Through Elizabeth, we learn why she left her home to Liam, the third character. We also learn of Elizabeth’s past and what she feels she needed to atone for.

I also enjoyed how well the author was able to evoke the atmosphere of a small town and its region (Northern Ontario).According to Jasanoff, the books are united by “their power to absorb the reader in an unusual story, and to do so in an artful, distinctive voice”. Kazuo Ishiguro makes cut alongside Rachel Cusk and Richard Powers, and novels from Sri Lanka and South Africa compete with choices from the US and UK Clara has another responsibility besides going to school. She promised the elderly next-door neighbor, Mrs. Orchard, that she would feed her cat, Moses, while Mrs. Orchard was in the hospital. Clara lets herself in using the key Mrs. Orchard gave her, feeds Moses, and plays with him before returning home.

Williams and his fellow judges – chair Maya Jasanoff, the historian; writer and editor Horatia Harrod; actor Natascha McElhone; novelist and professor Chigozie Obioma – read 158 books to come up with their longlist of 13. a character-driven story with a touch of mystery. The intertwining storylines of 7-year-old Clara, newly-divorced Liam, and elderly Elizabeth (Mrs. Orchard) are well-developed. I felt empathy for them at times; frustration at other times. I looked forward to see how their stories would evolve; and, Although I truly enjoyed this book, I do think that it’s too light to be considered for the Broker Prize. The story is told from three-character points of view. Clara, 7 years old, is a dutiful cat sitter who begins the story staring out her front window, watching her neighbor, Mrs. Orchard’s, home. Clara’s teenage sister Rose has just ran away, and Clara feels that she needs to keep her vigilance of the neighbor’s home to assure Rose’s safe return.This deftly-structured novel draws together the stories of three people at three different stages in life, each of whom is grappling with loss. We were captivated by A Town Called Solace’s beautifully paced, compassionate, sometimes wry examination of small-town lives.”—2021 Booker Prize Judges Author Mary Lawson sits by the table where she writes in Kingston upon Thames, London, Oct. 22, 2013. For The Globe and Mail

excellent depiction of the setting of Solace, a fictional small town in northern Ontario. I felt like a part of this community. A nicely threaded plot, around three main characters. First there is Elizabeth, now resting on her hospital bed and making the inventory of her life, strengthened by the fond memories of her departed husband. Then there is Liam, whom was her neighbor kid when he was little, always coming around in search of kindness, attention and love, which he didn't receive from his own parents. In the present (which is in the 70's), he is now the neighbor of Clara, a 8 year old girl whose rebellious teenage sister just disappeared. That clear-eyed humanism—the sort that is rooted firmly in the reality of life, but holds out a glimmer of potential for a measured, minor-key redemption—is classic Mary Lawson.”— The Globe and Mail We are always delighted to hear from authors. We are currently open for review requests and we are happy to review a wide variety of genres. Please submit your information below and we will be in touch asap. I listened to the audiobook, which also has 3 different narrators who did an amazing job. This was the first audiobook that I did not feel the need to increase the speed.Lawson, Mary (16 February 2021). "Mary Lawson: Why I write about the Canadian Shield". Macleans . Retrieved 22 August 2021. It is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. The book opens in the third person voice of a introverted seven year old girl Clare, with what seems to be increasingly autistic tendencies exacerbated by the tension she is facing making her something of an outsider at school Slowly but surely, the reader comes to understand what bonds these three disparate characters together as integrated layers of grief, regrets and flashes of understanding pull them forward. At one point, Liam questions, “How do you know another person’s mind? How do you know your own?” Although no person gets full clarity on those questions, the characters get a little closer to the answers. This novel is a moving story about a young Canadian girl who misses her runaway sister and a man who has divorced his wife and feels rootless. The author, Mary Lawson, sees the world through the eyes of very different small-town characters. Woven throughout the story is a compelling mystery about what happened to a rebellious sixteen-year-old girl.

This is Mary Lawson's fourth novel and I'd recommend a binge immersion. She has carved out a world in northern Ontario that's vividly, absorbingly real; she captures tones and voices with exactitude in writing that's idiomatic but never flashy and carries you along from midnight to dawn, oblivious of the time.

Liam is in his thirties, an accountant who has recently separated from his wife and is newly unemployed, and is in Solace to take up temporary residence in a house that has unexpectedly been left to him by an elderly lady he has not seen for more than thirty years. Planning to refurbish the house, put it on the market and then leave with the proceeds, Liam finds himself feeling rather reluctant to commit to selling the house, especially when he becomes unintentionally involved with Clara and with her sister's disappearance. The books world has long complained about the Booker’s decision to open its doors to American authors. This year, five British authors make the longlist, alongside four Americans. Ishiguro and the British-Canadian Cusk’s novels are joined by fellow Britons Francis Spufford’s Light Perpetual, which imagines a future for five children killed in the blitz, Sunjeev Sahota’s China Room, which weaves together the story of a young bride in rural 1929 Punjab with that of a young man in 1999, and British-Somali author Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men, in which suspicion falls on Mahmood Mattan for the murder of a shopkeeper in Cardiff’s Tiger Bay in 1952. Enter thirtyish Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, where he promptly moves into the house next door--watched suspiciously by astonished and dismayed Clara, whose elderly friend, Mrs. Orchard, owns that home. Around the time of Rose's disappearance, Mrs. Orchard was sent for a short stay in hospital, and Clara promised to keep an eye on the house and its remaining occupant, Mrs. Orchard's cat, Moses. As the novel unfolds, so does the mystery of what has transpired between Mrs Orchard and the newly arrived stranger.