A Town Called Solace

I don't know how I missed this book when it first came out in 2021. I picked it up in November on a cold, rainy day at a bookshop next to a cafe. I immediately went next door, ordered coffee, and cracked the cover. An hour later, I walked home through the rain and kept reading through the next two days, immersed in the webs of relationships in the small Ontario town of Solace. Like small towns everywhere, this one has its dark secrets. That's what kept me reading. But its ultimately hopeful outlook made me reluctant to leave the… show more.

Don’t be fooled. A Town Called Solace may open with little Clara, and Elizabeth may be the character who speaks in the first person, but neither is the primary protagonist. According to the litmus test for primary protagonist—"Which character is transformed the most?”—it’s Liam Kane. Once a lonely boy unloved by his mother, his wife is now leaving him, and he has retreated to the small town of Solace to care for the estate of a mother figure he barely remembers. Will little Clara and her lost sister and the ordinary people of this rural town be enough to coax… show more.