Land

May 31

About the book

Author: Maggie O’Farrell
Publisher: Knopf

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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Bookshop.org (print or ebook) | Libro.fm (audio)

My review

I am a big fan of Maggie O’Farrell’s. The way she can both transport you and move you (and weave in a light touch of magic) is incredible and so perfectly suited to my reading taste. Like many of you, my love for her work was rekindled by the recent release of the film adaptation of Hamnet (for which I reread the book), which makes me especially happy to tell you that so much of what we all loved about that book is present and masterfully done in her new novel, Land.

Land is about a family living in Ireland in the mid-1800s, shortly after the end of the Great Famine. It begins with Liam and his father, Tomás, during an expedition in which Tomás has been hired (and young Liam has been brought as an assistant) to survey a remote peninsula for the government’s mission to remap all of Ireland. Tomás finds something, and it changes both him and the course of their lives forever. Throughout the book, we follow not only Liam and Tomás, but also Tomás’ wife and their other children, over the course of several decades. We also learn about Tomás and his wife’s past, as well as shoot centuries and centuries back in time to the earliest people of that remote peninsula. At the heart of the book, it is about roots and home the ways we are tied to one another and, of course, the land.

I loved this book, especially because of its stylistic similarities to Hamnet. While that book is about grief and so much sadder (although there is plenty of heartbreak in this one), in Land, O’Farrell brings back her signature ability to flit in and out of the consciousness of anyone (or anything) in proximity to the main characters — a person passing by, an animal, an unborn fetus — which gives us a full, deep understanding of the characters, landscape, and conflict from all angles. She also has an incredible ability to bring her characters’ most secret, human, moving interior thoughts and emotions out, which makes you cry for them and love them and root for them. I was often on the edge of my seat for the, and I found that I was nervous to finish the book because I so desperately wanted them to end up happy. (No spoilers on that from me!)

The writing is also deeply transportative. Take the line: “She brings the fiddle out into the sea air.” That could easily have been something simple, such as “She pulls the fiddle out of its case.” But to bring it out into the sea air, which paints such a clear picture of a girl holding her beloved instrument in that particular setting (which I will not spoil for you), but also subtly introduces the risk in doing so as surely the salt could damage it? Whew. So much in a word choice. And Land is entirely comprised of genius such as this.

I listened to this novel on audio, and Dane Whyte O’Hara’s narration is beautiful and perfect. I highly recommend listening while out for a walk or run on a wooded trail, preferably with the sound of water trickling nearby. You will not be disappointed.