Author(s): Mary Lawson

General Fiction

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.

'Poised, elegant prose, paired with quiet drama that will break your heart' Graham Norton