Irish-Scottish author Maggie O'Farrell is one of my favourite writers. She is a gifted storyteller with a spellbinding vocabulary and an ability to immerse readers in the worlds she depicts. She is probably best known for her award winning Hamnet (2020) which was turned into a well-regarded film last year. I have read most of her work, and hotly anticipated the publication of her latest novel Land (2026).
Land is designed to be read slowly and savoured. Readers are invited to observe the whorls of ferns, listen to the susurrations of leaves and long grasses, and feel the chill of the damp hills. It is an immersive experience and O'Farrell's ability to deploy her cinematic storytelling to bring the tale to life is remarkable. The story is full of history and confronts the challenges of colonialism, displacement and hardship (not unlike Heather Rose's A Great Act of Love) and the deep love and longing people feel for their homelands.
While there was so much I loved about Land, there was something missing for me that kept this story distant in parts. Perhaps it was the recurring heartache for this family, but I think it had more to do with the structure. The four part composition, without chapter breaks, caused the story to flip between characters and offered no break, which does not match my reading temperament. The magical realism elements didn't entirely work for me either. While I found the book slow to start, I found the second half stronger than the first, as the children grew up and find their own way in the world. I wanted to know what happened to these characters and developed a real fondness for them. Ultimately I enjoyed this novel, but didn't feel as strong an attachment to it as I did with O'Farrell's prior novels.
One more thing... the cover illustration by Holly Ovenden is mesmerisingly beautiful.