Books by this Author

The Other Side of the Bridge (Vintage Canada, 2007)
The Other Side of the Bridge (Knopf Canada, 2006)
Crow Lake (Seal Books, July 2006)
Crow Lake (Vintage Canada, April 2003)
Crow Lake (Knopf Canada, February 2002)


Literary Awards

Book Reviews and Quotes

Praise for Crow Lake:

"Crow Lake… is a remarkable novel, utterly gripping and yet highly literate, written in such a fresh, believable voice that I had to keep reminding myself that this was fiction. I read it in a single sitting (almost unheard of!), then I read it again, just for the pleasure of it. I await her next work with eagerness (and a little envy)."
-Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat

"I didn’t read Crow Lake so much as I fell in love with it. This is one beautiful book."
-David Macfarlane, author of Summer Gone

"Within days you'll see people reading Crow Lake in odd places as they take quick breaks from the business of their lives. You'll also hear people say 'I stayed up all night reading this book by Mary Lawson.' Mary Lawson, Mary Lawson. Remember the name."
-Terry Rigelhof, The Globe and Mail

"Lawson delivers a potent combination of powerful character writing and gorgeous description of the land. Her sense of pace and timing is impeccable throughout, and she uses dangerous winter weather brilliantly to increase the tension as the family battles to survive. This is a vibrant, resonant novel by a talented writer whose lyrical, evocative writing invites comparisons to Rick Bass and Richard Ford."
-Publishers Weekly

"Every detail in this beautifully written novel rings true, the characters so solid we almost feel their flesh. Bo must be one of the most vividly realized infants in recent literature. Lawson creates a community without ever giving in to the Leacockian impulse to poke fun at small-town ways, instead showing respect to lives shaped by hard work and starved for physical comfort. The adult Kate's alienation from Crow Lake is initially difficult to accept, for everything in Kate's life, including her career in science, reflects the values of her formative years on the farm. Soon, though, her crippling guilt becomes the mystery that draws the reader on. First-time novelist Lawson was born in a small Ontario farming community and moved to England in 1968. The time away has given her vision a stunning clarity."
-Maureen Garvie, Quill & Quire starred review

"Lawson's narrative flows effortlessly in ever-increasing circles, swirling impressions in the reader's mind until form takes shape and the reader is left to reflect on the whole. Crow Lake is a wonderful achievement that will ripple in and out the reader's consciousness long after the last page is turned."
-Amazon.co.uk

"Critics are raving about… Crow Lake, a tightly plotted page-turner about sibling love, murder, and invertebrate zoology in rural Ontario, set in the 1950s and '60s."
-Judy Stoffman, The Toronto Star

"Lawson achieves a breathless anticipatory quality in her surprisingly adept first novel, in which a child tells the story, but tells it very well indeed."
-Danise Hoover, Booklist

"Crow Lake mesmerizes. … Crow Lake may be one of the loveliest novels you almost ever read."
-The Telegram

"Crow Lake [is] superb, elegant… Lawson is a brilliant storyteller; she takes her time in laying the foundation of her tale and layering on the complexities. She's also an elegant stylist; her prose is lyrically thoughtful… The depth, honesty and feeling throughout are superbly wrought. Crow Lake is a wondrous thing - it's a new Canadian classic."
-The Hamilton Spectator

"The assurance with which Mary Lawson handles both reflection and violence makes her a writer to read and watch… Peripheral portraits are skillfully drawn. Pot-banging Bo, with her minimal vocabulary of mostly shouted words, speaks to the heart without a scrap of sentimentality. The combative Cranes, unusual among fictional academics, are funny without being ridiculous and square off over the tablecloth with intelligence intact… Most impressive are the nuanced and un-self-conscious zoological metaphors that thread through the text."
-The New York Times

"Beautifully written, carefully balanced, Mary Lawson constructs a history of sacrifice, emotional isolation and family love without sounding a false note or a showy sentence."
-Elizabeth Buchan, Daily Mail (UK)