Mary Lawson has been longlisted for the Booker Prize twice, first in 2006 and again in 2021. She is a Canadian author. Her first novel, Crow Lake (2002), a tense family drama, won the 2003 McKitterick Prize.

Her second novel, The Other Side of the Bridge (2006), is the story of two generations of a family who are torn apart by the Second World War. Her third novel, Road Ends (2013), describes the Cartwright family’s unravelling in the aftermath of a tragedy, set against the backdrop of a frozen landscape in the first half of the 20th century.

A Town Called Solace began in my mind with a little girl standing at the window, watching a man carrying four big boxes, one after another, into the living room of the house next door

All nominated books

The Other Side of the Bridge
A Town Called Solace