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Crow Lake: FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF A TOWN CALLED SOLACE

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Ostensibly I spent 6 hours on a train yesterday, but really I was at Crow Lake in northern Ontario. I managed to consume the entire novel in this short period of time.

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson | Waterstones

The Other Side of the Bridge was deservedly longlisted for the Man Booker prize. It is Mary Lawson's second novel: her first, Crow Lake, was memorable for its spare, effective style and its powerful storytelling. This new book revisits the same territory in northern Ontario - the lake features, and the town doctor becomes a central figure - and is, if anything, even more arresting. She has a remarkable gift for conjuring up place and people in a handful of words, a few lines of dialogue. Struan is a remote town set amid wilderness and farming land, with a sawmill, "a sorry bunch of stores lined up along a dusty main street", the Hudson's Bay Company, Post Office, bank, restaurant, bar, hotel. The population is involved in farming or employed at the sawmill and the local mine. There is also the Ojibway reserve, with its own self-contained community. Crow Lake is a unique (to me) story about a family and the fate of 4 siblings after the tragedy of their parents' early death. Their story is narrated by Kate, one of the siblings, as a young girl and as an adult, and switches seamlessly from past to present. The most important themes are the effects of loss and how choices affect the trajectory of one's life. It's also about (mis)perceptions and survivor guilt. Late debut. Owens wrote her "Crayfish" at seventy, Lawson "Crow Lake" at fifty-two, edited it for three more years and tried to attach it to a publishing house, and saw it printed only when she was fifty-six.

READERS GUIDE

But part of me is convinced that it is hard to relate to Kate for anyone because she does not relate to anyone in the book. In fact, one of the issues dealt with in the book is the emotional detachment which people create for themselves as protection against loss. It was like a drink of cool water in the desert and being eaten alive by army ants, both at the same time." A remarkable novel, utterly gripping...I read it at a single sitting, then I read it again, just for the pleasure of it' Joanne Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat

Crow Lake - Quill and Quire Crow Lake - Quill and Quire

The accident orphans the four Morrison children: Luke, 18; Matt, 17; Kate, who is the narrator, seven; and the irrepressible Bo, a toddler. The neighbours support the bereft children by providing food. The kids’ Aunt Annie visits from the Gaspé region of Quebec. She says the children will have to be separated because the older boys will be unable to work or study while raising the younger girls. But Luke, who was never a strong student, instead decides to abandon college and get a job to keep his fractured family together. Family: while the girl from "Where the Crayfish Sing" is faced with the monstrous selfishness of relatives who abandon her to the mercy of fate, the four Morrison children are united by the misfortune that befell them and makes them work together, and distant relatives do not stand aside. Crow Lakeis the kind of book that keeps you reading well past midnight; you grieve when it’s over. Then you start pressing it on friends.” —The Washington Post Book World It seems that the comparison of this novel with "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens is inevitable. In fact, there are many parallels between them, in a variety of evaluation planes. Looking at what are the similarities and differences?Crow Lake explores the connection people hold for the land on which they are born, a common theme in Canadian literature. While some are satisfied to stay in the isolated farming community, others want to explore the wider world, which is likely possible only by going to college or university. In this way, higher education provides a means of betterment, or even freedom. Other themes in the novel include domestic abuse, family dynamics and sibling rivalry. Class rivalry, too, is hinted at as a mature Kate struggled with her feelings about the family she left behind. Sequel Lawson's debut skillfully drew me in to care about all of her characters, leading me to wonder - what happened? And why?

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