Mary Lawson on Solace in Winter

Mary Lawson on Solace in Winter

She's been twice placed on the Booker Prize longlist, spent countless weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and has built a singular world in novels like Crow Lake, A Town Called Solace, and The Other Side of the Bridge. We're beyond thrilled that Mary Lawson will be joining us in St Andrews for her new novel, Solace in Winter.

It is deep winter, 1969. As the Vietnam War drives young men north across the Canadian border, widower Jack's quiet life is overturned by two accidents that happen on the bend in the road into town. First comes a dog in a bad way. Next a draft-dodger, seriously injured, lying in the snow. Suddenly, Jack's cabin is busy with a growing cast of characters - and all the baggage, dreams and desires they're carrying.

The atmosphere chills when Jack's daughter Sally drops by one day and doesn't like what she sees...

This exquisite snow globe of a novel is a refuge, a story of connection and moral complexity set in the beloved world of Mary Lawson's bestselling, prizewinning Crow Lake, The Other Side of the Bridge, Road Ends and A Town Called Solace.

Mary Lawson's first novel, Crow Lake, was loved by critics and readers all over the world; it was translated into 26 languages and published in 29 countries. It was a New York Times bestseller, won the McKitterick Prize and spent 75 weeks on the bestseller lists in her native Canada. Her second novel, The Other Side of the Bridge, was longlisted for the Booker Prize and selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club. Road Ends, published in 2014, was described by the New York Times as 'tender and surprising . . . a vivid and evocative tale'. A Town Called Solace was an instant bestseller in Canada and longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. Mary came to England in the 1960s, and lives in Kingston-upon-Thames.