Aging Mrs. Orchard has gone into hospital and Clara, her neighbour’s daughter is feeding her capricious cat. At the same time, Clara’s teenage sister, Rose has an argument with her mother and leaves. The small community of Solace in Northern Ontario search the woods, but there is no sign of Rose. Clara stands by the window awaiting her sister’s return when she spies a stranger entering Mrs. Orchard’s house. Who is this man? Why are her parents lying to her? And why hasn’t Mrs. Orchard returned?
This novel is off to a slow start in the first two short chapters, but the small town setting, the characters and Lawson’s wonderful story telling had me engrossed by the third chapter.
Read and Write 
I loved this too and the more I read, the more complexity I saw in her use of various literary devices that gave it a wow factor for me.
I loved that it’s a kind of anti-hero story, it’s the story(s) of those left behind, it refuses to engage with the more dramatic and extrovert (namely Rose and her disappearance) this is Clara’s, Liam’s and Mrs Orchard’s inner journey(s), reflected while Rose and her parents dilemma plays out in the background. It’s like focusing on the lives of women, while the men are at war, or on the life of Penelope while Odyseuss is at sea, the stories and perspectives that rarely make the limelight in the real world.
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