Crow Lake

Crow Lake is a 2002 Canadian bildungsroman set in a rural farming community in northern Ontario. It is author Mary Lawson’s debut work and earned her the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the UK McKitterick Prize. The novel focuses on the Morrison siblings, who are orphaned when their parents are killed by a logging truck. Kate, the second-youngest member of the family, narrates the novel in first person. Her narrative alternates between the present day and the year following their parents’ death. 

In the present day, Kate is working as an assistant professor of zoology and pursuing a life with her boyfriend, Daniel. Kate is riddled with shame regarding her childhood, making it difficult for her to disclose information about her family and her past to Daniel and forcing Kate to consider what influence the past still holds over her life. Sections set in the past take place approximately 20 years earlier, when Kate is a grieving seven-year-old. Kate’s older brothers, Matt and Luke, make the decision to keep the family together rather than sending their young sisters to live with another branch of the family. The novel covers the financial and emotional troubles the family encounters, particularly focusing on the events that tie the Morrisons to their neighbors, the turbulent and troubled Pyes.