24 in ’24 Challenge – Book 11 “Crow Lake” by Mary Lawson

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson is set in a farming community in rural Canada. Kate, the elder sister, has been invited back to her childhood home to the birthday of her nephew. Because of events in her past she avoids going back home wherever possible. She is trying to decide whether to bring her partner with her and she begins to explain to the reader what happened when she was younger and why those events lie so heavily on her mind. The modern day narrative is interspersed with the explanation of her childhood until both coincide with the visit home and a new understanding for Kate.

Kate’s parents die together, unexpectedly, when she is a child and her two older brothers have to change their lives to bring up their two younger sisters. This is a story about expectations, families and escaping your past. This book concentrates on the struggle of this little family to survive and compares what is happening to them with another farming family close by. There are decisions to be made and consequences when things go wrong but there is also love and support from the local community.

The setting and landscape of Kate’s childhood home are the background to the story. Kate is introduced to a love of wildlife and especially small marine life by her older brother and she later goes on to study and research this academically. The author writes very lovingly about the natural world and it’s an important part of the novel.

A year or so ago I asked a bookseller to recommend something that she liked herself for me to buy and she said that she loved Mary Lawson’s books. At the time I chose something else but I later remembered the recommendation and picked up this book in a charity shop. I am so glad that I did. This is wonderful writing. The author conveys Kate’s state of mind and emotions brilliantly. The book is full of tension but all the events seem to follow inevitably from what we know of the characters. I found it captivating reading and very difficult to put down.