Town Called Solace, A (B)

Set in the frozen north of Canada in 1972, this is a novel about childhood trauma, painful histories that need reckoning with and the moments in life when we can change for the better

'I've been telling everyone I know about Mary Lawson . . . Each of her novels is just a marvel' Anne Tyler Northern Ontario, 1972.

Clara's sister is missing after a row with their mother. Eight-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 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.