Elizabeth, an old lady dying in a hospital gifts her home in Solace, a town in northern Canada, to Liam. When he moves in he learns that the neighbours' daughter has gone missing. Their other daughter, eight year old Clara, looks after Moses the cat.
The story is told from the alternating PoVs of Clara, trying to make sense of whatever has happened to her sister, Liam, bearing the wounds of a failed marriage, and Elizabeth, seeking redemption for something that happened long ago, when she lived next door to Liam and he was four. Their stories gently intertwine. But perhaps the most important character is Solace, the small town where everyone knows almost everything about everyone and neighbour looks out for neighbour. Never has a town been more appropriately named.
It is, perhaps, a little naive. Solace is an Eden of innocence, from the friendly local cop to the unfriendly waitress to the friendly local carpenter and builder to the over-friendly ice-cream making librarian. Everything bad happens outside the town limits, particularly in the fleshpots of Toronto.
And I'm not sure that I agree that High Noon has an awful theme song. I quite like the tune. Although I must confess that it has one of the worst rhymes of all time in the lyrics: "He made a vow while in state's prison/ Swore it would be my life or his'n." Please!
Selected quotes:
- "The kitchen had seemed to smoke with her rage." (Ch 1)
- "Clara couldn't look at him because his face frightened her as much as her mother's. It wasn't blotchy with crying; instead, it had a cheerful look pasted on like a mask that didn't fit properly." (Ch 1)
- "Liver for lunch. I hate liver. And I don't think it's tactful serving offal to patients whose own innards might be causing them distress." (Ch 2)
- "She must have picked the nightie out of an Eaton's catalogue under the horribly mistaken impression that it would make her look like the girl modelling it. Clearly there is no full-length mirror in the house. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose." (Ch 5)
- "His life prior to coming north seemed to be taking on the qualityn of an old movie, one in which he'd been deeply engrossed while watching it but which now seemed trivial, unconvincing and profoundly lacking in either colour or plot." (Ch 15)
- "Their father cried, right there on the porch, right there in front of Dr Christopherson and Sergeant Barnes." (Ch 16)
- "Arrogance is so unattractive it amounts to a disfigurement." (Ch 17)
- "They were in bed, lying on their backs, wearing nothing under the covers but a light sheen of sweat." (Ch 18)
An easy if unchallenging read with some moments of delicate lyricism. May 2024; 288 pages.
Longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.
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