Solace in Winter

Having once discovered Lawson, you want more... The comparisons with Elizabeth Strout stand up. So too might ones to Ann Patchett, Claire Keegan, Marilynne Robinson and Annie Proulx for a captivating portrayal of a community and its characters, drawn with humane understanding, empathy and humour -- Patricia Nicol * The Times *
I don’t know how she does it. I was so emotionally invested in these characters from the very first page. Mary Lawson has the rare ability to find extraordinary beauty and warmth in the most unexpected places. She's one of my all-time favourite writers... utterly captivating -- GRAHAM NORTON
A beauty of a book... A vivid, gracious, quietly suspenseful and life-affirming novel about the complications of kindness, small-town thinking and an old man’s discovery of new life just when he least expects it. I kept turning the pages, desperate to know how it would end. And oh! A dog to fall completely in love with. -- RACHEL JOYCE
A wonderful book, written with a clear-eyed compassion and a fine eye for detail. A masterpiece of insight into what it means to be fully flawed and perfectly human. I loved it -- JOANNE HARRIS
An out-and-out masterpiece; I was completely hooked after two pages -- CRESSIDA CONNOLLY
A story about how we flourish when we embrace the unexpected and shrivel when we go the other way... The marvellous quality of Lawson's writing is its simplicity; everything just flows -- Melanie McDonagh * Evening Standard *