Crow Lake: FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF A TOWN CALLED SOLACE

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In a gorgeous, slow-burning story, Mary Lawson combines well-drawn characters, beautiful writing, and a powerful description of the land to tell the emotionally pitch-perfect story of personal struggles, familial bonds, and the power of forgiveness. Questions and Topics for Discussion Late debut. Owens wrote her "Crayfish" at seventy, Lawson "Crow Lake" at fifty-two, edited it for three more years and tried to attach it to a publishing house, and saw it printed only when she was fifty-six. I’m afraid I’m going to sound like a broken record when I say how much I really LOVE this book. Recently I’ve had a good run with a few books that are absolutely terrific…. Understatement was the rule in our house. Emotions, even positive ones, were kept firmly under control. It was the Eleventh Commandment, carved on its very own tablet of stone and presented specifically to those of Presbyterian persuasion: Thou Shalt Not Emote."

You make it sound like it was centuries ago,” Daniel said. “If you parents died when you were seven, it’s barely twenty years.” Matt sees problems clearly and is realistic about solving them, whereas Luke is content to wait for things to work themselves out. Given the situation they were in, what were the advantages and disadvantages of each frame of thinking? A simple and heartfelt account that conveys an astonishing intensity of emotion, almost Proustian in its sense of loss and regret.Q. For you, what was the importance of the Ponds? Clearly the symbol of a bond of closeness between Matt and Kate but the strong emphasis placed on biological study is evident. Is this an area you yourself have studied in the past? A touching meditation on the power of loyalty and loss, on the ways in which we pay our debts and settle old scores, and on what it means to love, to accept, to succeed—and to negotiate fate’s obstacle courses.” —People

For the first few weeks following the death of her parents, Kate believes that she was "protected from the reality by disbelief." How did she carry this defense mechanism with her throughout her childhood and into adulthood? What are some examples? Q. In her adult life, the breakdown of her relationship with her brother affects her relationships with other men, i.e. Daniel. What do you think is the significance of Daniel’s character and why did you choose him for Kate? This sacrifice leads to much tension between the brothers. Both work intermittently for a neighbouring family, the Pyes, who for several generations have suffered from fierce conflicts between fathers and sons. In the final crisis, Matt, after winning his scholarships, discovers that he has made the meek and distressed daughter of the Pye household, Marie, pregnant; she also reveals that her father, Calvin Pye, has killed her brother, who was thought to have run away from home as several other Pye sons had done. Calvin Pye kills himself, and Matt has to give up his plans for education to marry Marie. The second world war comes and the town's youths sign up, to a boy; or, in Arthur's case, try to do so - he is rejected on account of flat feet. And, come the Dieppe raid, there is a communal tragedy: many households receive one of those numbing telegrams. At the war's end, Arthur finds himself almost the only survivor of his generation.In this universal drama of family love and misunderstandings, of resentments harbored and driven underground, Lawson ratchets up the tension with heartbreaking humor and consummate control, continually overturning one’s expectations right to the very end. Tragic, funny, unforgettable, Crow Lake is a quiet tour de force that will catapult Mary Lawson to the forefront of fiction writers today. As the novel progressed, though, the ponds took on a wider significance. They were, as you say, as symbol of the closeness between Matt and Kate, but to me they also came to represent Kate’s childhood – the period of ‘innocence’ before she was, as she saw it, betrayed by Matt. The trips with Matt to the ponds survived the tragedy which overtook the family at the beginning of the book, and partly through them, Kate managed to survive it too. But they did not survive Matt’s ‘betrayal’, and in an emotional sense, neither did she. In fact, the ponds were the scene of the crime. Kate says in the book, ‘By the following September the ponds themselves would have been desecrated twice over, as far as I was concerned, and for some years after that I did not visit them at all.’ stars — All the metaphors I kept thinking up to describe this evoked some variation of "warmth" - ironic for a novel set in the chilly wilderness of Northern Ontario. A warm piece of homemade pie you wish could last at least another dozen bites. The warmth of a hug from a special friend that neither one of you wants to pull away from too soon. A warm, cozy fire around which local legends are told.