Welcome to Litsy!

5⭐️ Wow! I‘m glad that I decided to give this book a try. What a captivating story! I love how she uses dual-timeline and that she brings in another individual as a close observer of an intense sibling rivalry. Mary Lawson is a wonderful story-teller I want to read her other books now

Spending 1 hour on a treadmill is a chore so I have been listening to podcasts while struggling with my run/walk. And I came across this episode discussing Mary Lawson. Never heard of her, never read her books… but the interview intrigued me and Libby has the tagged book. Hurrah! I started it and kinda like her writing… it‘s engaging, too!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5zIVqLotaPk38aDqpKaPg6?si=te1orrVXSRy-CdZbTsRv4...

At dinner time and again in the evening he'd walk back to the house along the track and for the first couple of weeks the prints of his father's boots were still there, like his signature written on the land. Then it rained and they were gone. That had seemed a treachery, that his footsteps could be erased so easily. How many thousands of times had he walked along that track?

A small northern Canadian town. Two timelines - the late 30s/early 40s and some 15 yrs later.

In the late 30s, brothers Arthur and Jake grow up on a farm. Arthur is the reliable one and when they overhear their father tell their mother that Arthur is a good worker everything seems to change.

15 yrs later, young Ian starts working on Arthur‘s farm. Ian has a crush on Arthur‘s wife and hope this will make it possible to spend time with her.

First #gladstones book finished 😁
What a wonderful writer Lawson is. Her prose and pacing of the inevitable domestic drama is amazing.

Hair done, relaxing lunchtime read and then pack for #Gladstonesretreat

Another fantastic read by Mary Lawson. I‘m so happy I discovered her work over the summer and I can‘t believe I had never heard of her before!

I just finished this book, and now I‘m sad. It‘s the last book in Mary Lawson‘s backlist and now I have to wait (years? Decades?) for her to write another one. Each book has been a tremendous reading experience and I urge everyone I know to read them all. (But do it slowly, to delay the inevitable sadness that you‘ll feel when you too get to the end.)

Lawson is a master at pacing domestic tension! Another 5⭐️

I‘m disappointed this one is the last of her backlist for me. She doesn‘t seem to write quickly so I‘m left waiting for the next new novel.

I cannot impress how well Lawson builds tension. The prologue sets it up with children playing a knife game and then wham, chapter 4 drops a bombshell that you know is only the beginning of a fraught future. 😬

Up next - the last Lawson novel I haven‘t read. I have raced through them.

Thanks @TrishB for the reminder! 😉

Mail call! 😁

I fell in love with The Country of Pointed Firs when I listened to it on Libravox a couple of years ago. If you love writing that is imbued with place, you‘ll appreciate it. This edition also includes four of Jewett‘s short stories that I haven‘t read yet.

My local used bookstore house is closing soon, this was the fist of many trips😭 A few of these titles are #blamelitsy and I thank you!!