Crow Lake

“The Crows’ Lake” by Mary Lawson is a bright and wise coming-of-age novel, highly acclaimed by Pulitzer Prize laureate Anne Tyler. Young Luke, who had never seemed promising, enrolled in college. Right around the corner comes the passionate dream of three generations of the Morrison family: the first of them will finally get higher education. And even more than that—the first at Crows’ Lake, in a small farming community in northern Ontario. But a fateful accident upends the lives of four children and sets the beginning of their growing-up story—told calmly and thoughtfully, yet bursting with unbelievable emotional intensity. The Morrisons’ dream intertwines with the nightmare of the Pies—an adjacent family whose old house on the outskirts becomes the setting for a real Greek tragedy. Mary Lawson is one of those rare, worth-their-weight-in-gold authors who can write simply and truly powerfully—without an abundance of artistic special effects, yet you can’t stop paying attention to their story. “The Crows’ Lake” is clear and transparent as the surface of water, and deep—like a bottomless pool—a novel about self-sacrifice and guilt, shattered dreams, and the strength of loyalty.