A Town Called Solace

A Town Called Solace (2021) is a contemporary novel by Mary Lawson. Set in the fictional town of Solace in the early 1970s, it follows the story of three interconnected individuals told in alternating narratives: eight-year-old Clara, whose older sister has gone missing; middle-aged Liam, who is reeling after a recent divorce; and elderly Elizabeth, confined to her hospital room with a failing heart. The book explores themes of Confronting and Overcoming Challenges, The Search for Solace and Understanding, and The Complexities of Relationships.

Mary Lawson is a Canadian writer whose debut novel, Crow Lake (2002), was a New York Times bestseller.

This guide uses the 2021 Random House Kindle Edition.

Content Warning: This book contains mentions and descriptions of mental illness, abuse, domestic violence, sexual violence, and the loss of children.

Plot Summary

A Town Called Solace is told in a nonlinear narrative through three alternating perspectives: those of eight-year-old Clara, middle-aged Liam Kane, and elderly Elizabeth Orchard. Mrs. Orchard is a widow hospitalized with a failing heart. As she lies in her hospital bed, she reminisces about her past and anticipates being reunited with her late husband in death. Mrs. Orchard remembers some of the happiest times of their life, such as when they lived in Guelph and their neighbors’ son, Liam Kane, was briefly a part of their life.

Having suffered multiple miscarriages, a deeply grieving Mrs. Orchard becomes extremely attached to three-year-old Liam, who is neglected by his mother, Annette, in favor of his sisters. Frazzled with having to care for Liam’s older sisters and newborn twin girls, Annette is initially relieved when Liam spends time with the Orchards. However, Mr. Orchard is worried about how attached his wife is getting to the child.

Things come to a head when Liam refuses to go home one evening, claiming he wants the Orchards to be his new parents. A furious Annette accuses Mrs. Orchard of poisoning her son against her, and drags Liam back home. Desperate not to be cut out of Liam’s life, Mrs. Orchard breaks into the Kanes’ house at night and carries a sleeping Liam out and drives away. She is apprehended by the police early the next morning, but Liam sleeps through it all. She is convicted for abduction and goes to prison for a year; once out, she spends some time in a psychiatric institution, where the professional help and her husband’s support greatly help with her condition.

Mrs. Orchard eventually moves to a town called Solace in Northern Ontario and, after Mr. Orchard’s death, breaks her promise to never contact Liam again and begins writing to him. The two keep up their correspondence over almost a decade, with Liam having only fuzzy but warm memories of the Orchards. Toward the end, Mrs. Orchard suspects that he is not happy. While in the hospital and nearing her end, she decides the only way she can help him is to give him financial security, and bequeaths her house and fortune to him.

After Mrs. Orchard passes away, Liam, now a grown man and fresh off a divorce, arrives in Solace to take over her house. Liam was married to a woman named Fiona for eight years, but their relationship disintegrated over time. Wanting a break from his life in Toronto after his failed marriage, Liam has quit his job and moved to Solace, hoping to sell the house after getting in a short holiday.

Liam doesn’t have any friends and has always felt distant from his family. Liam’s father left when Liam was six, and Liam has always felt neglected by his mother and sisters. After he left home for college, he never went back. He moves into Mrs. Orchard’s house, which is next door to the Jordon family. The Jordons’ older daughter, Rose, has just run away from home. The local police chief, Sergeant Barnes, visits Liam to do a background check on the newcomer in town; satisfied that Liam is not a threat, he informs Liam of the situation with his neighbors.

Rose’s younger sister, eight-year-old Clara, watches Liam’s arrival next door with mounting apprehension. She was entrusted with Mrs. Orchard’s shy cat, Moses, when the old woman went away to the hospital and promised to return in a few days. That neither she nor Rose have retuned makes Clara extremely anxious. Determined to keep her promise to Mrs. Orchard, Clara tracks Liam’s movements by watching him through the window, going over to the house when he is out to feed and play with Moses every day. Liam remains unaware of Moses’s existence, with the cat hiding every time Liam returns.

When Clara sees Liam start packing away Mrs. Orchard’s things, she is incensed. She stealthily unpacks and replaces everything when Liam is away, but is caught in the act when she attempts it a second time. From Liam, Clara learns of Mrs. Orchard’s death. Angry and disillusioned that her parents are lying to her, Clara’s worry about Rose’s situation intensifies. She begins to trust and depend on Liam, especially as he lets her care for Moses and is the only adult in her life who is not lying to her.

When one of Rose’s friends, Dan Karakas, approaches Clara with information about Rose, Clara confides in Liam. Liam contacts Sergeant Barnes, and with their joint help, Dan tells the police what he knows. Rose is found and brought back home by the police from where she was being kept hostage in a human-trafficking situation on the outskirts of Toronto. She is still in a state of shock when she arrives, but slowly begins to show signs of recovery from her deep trauma.

Even as he keeps telling himself that he will sell Mrs. Orchard’s house and leave Solace, Liam becomes more deeply entrenched in the town. He strikes up a friendship with Jim Peake, the local handyman, whom he initially employs for repairs on the house and starts working alongside. He begins a relationship with Jo, the librarian, rebuffing his ex-wife’s attempt at reconciliation when she unexpectedly visits him. He even unpacks his boxes of things at Clara’s request. Liam eventually decides to stay on in Solace, and the book ends with Liam finally meeting Moses for the first time in the house on the day he makes this decision.