Mary Lawson is a Canadian novelist whose works are set in Northern Ontario. Her novels delve into the complexities of human relationships and family bonds with keen observation and profound insight. Lawson frequently explores themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning. Her narrative style is marked by its evocative atmosphere and compelling characters.
'I've been telling everyone I know about Mary Lawson . . . Each of her novels is just a marvel' Anne Tyler Clara's rebellious older sister is missing. Grief-stricken and bewildered, she yearns to uncover the truth about what happened. Liam, newly divorced and newly unemployed, moves into the house next door and within hours gets a visit from the police. Elizabeth is thinking about a crime committed thirty years ago, one that had tragic consequences for two families. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies. 'Will break your heart' Graham Norton 'Exquisitely poignant' Liane Moriarty
Set against the backdrop of a snowy northern Ontario town, the narrative explores themes of memory and loss through a protagonist haunted by the image of a child for a year. A fleeting encounter with a lynx provides a momentary escape from his burden. As he grapples with his past, the story delves into the emotional weight of grief and the struggle to find solace. Mary Lawson, known for her previous works, crafts a poignant tale that resonates with readers through its vivid setting and deep character introspection.
Arthur and Jake are the sons of a local farmer in the mid-1930s. Arthur is reticent, solid, dutiful, and is set to inherit the farm and his father's character. Jake is younger, attractive, mercurial and dangerous to know. A young woman comes into the community and tips the fragile balance of sibling rivalry over the edge.
Crow Lake is that rare find, a first novel so quietly assured, so emotionally pitch perfect, you know from the opening page that this is the real thing—a literary experience in which to lose yourself, by an author of immense talent. Here is a gorgeous, slow-burning story set in the rural “badlands” of northern Ontario, where heartbreak and hardship are mirrored in the landscape. For the farming Pye family, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur—offstage. Centerstage are the Morrisons, whose tragedy looks more immediate if less brutal, but is, in reality, insidious and divisive. Orphaned young, Kate Morrison was her older brother Matt’s protegee, her fascination for pond life fed by his passionate interest in the natural world. Now a zoologist, she can identify organisms under a microscope but seems blind to the state of her own emotional life. And she thinks she’s outgrown her siblings—Luke, Matt, and Bo—who were once her entire world. In this universal drama of family love and misunderstandings, of resentments harbored and driven underground, Lawson ratchets up the tension with heartbreaking humor and consummate control, continually overturning one’s expectations right to the very end. Tragic, funny, unforgettable, this deceptively simple masterpiece about the perils of hero worship leapt to the top of the bestseller lists only days after being released in Canada and earned glowing reviews in The New York Times and The Globe and Mail, to name a few.
