Reviews with content warning for Infertility - Im letzten Licht des Herbstes

I was immediately absorbed by A Town Called Solace. It’s got three intriguing characters - Clara, an eight year old girl, desperate for her missing older sister to return and who totally broke my heart, Liam, who is figuring out how to start over after the end of his marriage, and Elizabeth, a woman with a past she’d rather keep private, who is nearing the end of her life. It’s got old world charm, being set in a small northern Ontario town in the early 1970s. It’s got a compassionate exploration of themes such as love, loss and parenthood. And, what really made it standout for me, it’s got fabulous, beautiful storytelling. It’s not flashy but it does feature a couple of interesting techniques. There are three story lines which interweave and interconnect but don’t run perfectly parallel. Liam and Clara’s sections are recounted in the third person, while Elizabeth’s unfolds in the first person in the form of a letter to her dead husband. And some of the details that Lawson captures - I’m thinking of you hand sliding into pyjama pocket - are perfection. I can understand the criticisms of this book but for various reasons they weren’t issues me. I was able to accept, enjoy and be engrossed by it on its own terms.

Final Verdict - Totally captivating storytelling but it won’t be for every reader.

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

3.5

I don’t know how to feel about A Town Called Solace. It’s three interconnected stories in one, told in a combination of first and third person perspectives. We have seven-year-old Clara, whose older sister is missing; her elderly next-door neighbour Mrs Orchard, reflecting on a decades-old crime from her hospital bed; recently separated Liam Kane, who raises Clara’s suspicion when he moves into Mrs Orchard’s house.

While the set-up sounds like this might be something of a mystery, it isn’t really. For me it was a comfort read – the kind of story that introduces you to characters with an emotional need and then fulfils it. A more nuanced, literary version of those festive movies where a closed-off businesswoman gets stuck in a small town and finally realises the true meaning of Christmas. It’s a little twee, but it’s heartwarming, and I lapped it up.

On reflection, therein lies my conflict. Like those movies, this book feels like it’s built on the foundations of values my head doesn’t fully subscribe to, but my heart is comforted by – because they’re so familiar. The small town 1970s nostalgia feels like home – like solace – through Liam Kane’s eyes, with its friendly local cop and its diner where city types get short shrift. But look away from the page at this world we live in, and I’m not sure I buy what this book is selling.

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4.5

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