A Town Called Solace (2020) by Mary Lawson

Book Review

A Town Called Solace (2020)

by Mary Lawson

   Here is another Booker longlist title that didn't make the shortlist cut.  Canadian writer Lawson picked up another Booker longlist nomination in 2006 for her second book, The Other Side of the Bridge.  It's clearly central to the Booker Prize to throw at least one longlist nomination to a Canadian writer, you could call it a "slot" alongside slots for African writers, writers from South Asia, writers from Aus/NZ, the English spot, the non-English UK slot, the Caribbean slot and the American slot.  I guess you would call Lawson a regionalist, the region being "Northern Canada"- is that the suburbs of Toronto?

   A Town Called Solace is a classic Booker longlist pick, a quiet book about little lives in a small town in Canada with some interesting themes and a well developed plot. If you actually pick up A Town Called Solace, sit down and read it, you won't be sorry, but getting started might be tough.  It's impossible to explain without spoiling aspects of the plot.