Land

by Maggie O'Farrell

'You will never understand how the land remembers, how deep the roots grow'

A spellbinding story of separation, longing, recovery and survival as a family makes a new home in the aftermath of tragedy.

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

Land is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Ireland, Historical, Literary Fiction, Irish Literature, Adult Fiction

400 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication June 2, 2026

About the author

Maggie O'Farrell (born 1972, Coleraine Northern Ireland) is a British author of contemporary fiction, who features in Waterstones' 25 Authors for the Future. It is possible to identify several common themes in her novels - the relationship between sisters is one, another is loss and the psychological impact of those losses on the lives of her characters.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A glimpse at Maggie O’Farrell’s creative process in her opening letter to her readers - where she was when first line of this story came to her, a story she knows she’s meant to write, inspired by her great-great-grandfather. From the first sentence to the last this extraordinarily beautiful and complex novel is why Maggie O’Farrell is one of my very favorite writers . It’s a profound, multilayered story telling of events in Ireland’s history depicted through the struggles of a family whose heartaches over the years become our heartaches as we share their fear, loss, grief, their love as they make their way in life.

In 1865 Ireland, a discovery is made as ten year old Liam is working with his father, a land surveyor for the red coats. They find a spring, magical waters perhaps that will forever change the lives of Liam, his father Tomas and their family in the years to come. The recent past is brought forward through Tomas’ memory in some horrific scenes of the Great Hunger, gut wrenching, heartbreaking and unbearable memories of the times of hunger and death when he was a young boy. Later through his wife’s unbearable memories we get a picture of the struggles and loss and suffering of her family. As the years pass, I came to love this whole family. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the kind and wise widow who helps all of them through their struggles and their loyal dog Bran.

O’Farrell’s masterful storytelling weaves together multiple time lines and characters, bridging the folklore magic of ancient times to a time we recognize in the present setting of 1865. The changes in time are seamless. She draws on magical realism and this with the fairytale like stories of a millennia earlier never feel too much. These elements belong here . This is the story of the land, how this family toils to sustain themselves off the land, how Tomas has to reluctantly work for the red coats in order to pay the rent on the land on which they live by naming places and relegating ownership which he knows divides people, a story of the people who lived on this land before them, a story that comes full circle to the land in the future. I’m left in awe.

“A seanchaí is a traditional Gaelic storyteller or historian, serving as an oral repository.” (Wikipedia). O’Farrell is the modern seanchai telling the stories through the written word with beautiful writing . I predict that this will be my favorite book of the year.

I received a copy of this book from Knopf through NetGalley.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An epic Irish story that takes you on quite a journey… starts off in 1865 after the years of the Great Hunger… it follows a family in an Irish peninsula… it’s a story of overlapping lives and haunting ghosts and tells the story of how the land remembers.
There are quite a few moments of magical realism but it pertains to the family history and history of the land.
Maggie O’Farrell’s writing is so good at transporting you to a time and place.
I loved all the family members but my goodness… there was tragedy after tragedy and I was just hoping throughout for something good to happen to them.
Regardless of the outcome, I enjoyed the journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available June 2

[Liz Hein · Rating 5 out of 5]

lol I literally cannot stop crying. Not because this was sad, but because I just….I loved it so much. Review to come when I can get myself together.

Okay I'm back...

I very well may have just read my favorite book of 2026. Reading Land felt like being told a Story with a capital S if that makes any sense. It felt like sitting at Maggie's feet, leaning further and further in the longer this magical epic went. This is so dramatic, but I cried for more than a little bit when this ended. Not because it was necessarily sad, but because it was so beautiful and I loved it so very much.

We open with a father (Tomas) and son (Liam) working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland in 1865. I learned through an introductory note from O'Farrell that her great-great grandfather worked on the early maps of Ireland not long after The Great Hunger, and researching his life was the impetus for this book. Tomas is determined to tell the real story through his maps of what the Red Coats did to his land and his people and not let the colonizer write that history.

Land is a sweeping story, covering the full lives of the parents and children and the land while also going further back and forward, making time feel not linear at all. It read like pure magic. Not just during the times O'Farrell inserts some magical realism, but all of it. Everything about this book feels alive. I knew every character inside and out. I knew the land and the family's house like it was a person. After all, it holds so much, from our buried loves on to our history and future. O'Farrell tells us that earth can be an ending to one story yet a beginning to another. The connections she makes between characters/the 4 parts of this story scratched the same itch for me that Hearts Invisible Furies did. The way the characters, at times, try imitate one another felt so Shakespearean.

Land leaves me with so much to think about. It sent me down a Gaelic Folklore rabbit hole. It left me stunned contemplating the idea of permanence and how it feels when something that is a constant, like the night sky, somehow isn't anymore. It left me considering honor and resistance in a new light and why leaving land might hurt worse than leaving existence entirely. And finally, it reminded me that my dad drew me a map for how to be, and while he isn't physically here anymore, I can still follow that map.

[Julia]

Never clicked Want to Read faster, this is the best news all week

[Kim Alkemade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immersive and atmospheric, this magnificent novel took me on a journey through time as the fate of one Irish family is woven through the history and geography of the land on which they make their home. In a story that spans from Nordic invaders to English colonization, from the Great Famine to Canadian emigration, from the far-reaches of British empire to the source of a supernatural well, O'Farrell's gorgeous prose and rich descriptions gave me a visceral sense of Ireland's wonders and woes.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many people will come to Land by Maggie O'Farrell because they have recently read or seen Hamnet, and they absolutely should. Maggie O'Farrell is one of my favorite modern authors. I have read nearly everything she's written, so I loved Land. The story begins with Tomas, a man surveying land in Ireland in 1865. You start by meeting his son and learning about the land. From there, however, the story expands to learn more about The Great Hunger, Irish history, folklore and beliefs, as well as the stories of Tomas' childhood and his current family. The story then expands further from there to follow each of his children. This story is beautiful, as all of Maggie O'Farrell's books are. She writes for people who love grammar and what additional layers exquisitely chosen grammar can add to meaning. That being said, some casual readers of Hamnet may find her descriptions long; this book is an epic; do not think otherwise! Many thanks to netgalley and the publishers for this amazing ARC!

[Annie Waddoups · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Tomas and his young son Liam are surveying their homeland in Ireland for the 1865 British Ordnance map project when they have an ineffable, life-altering experience in a grove of trees. When they return to their family in town, their lives are changed—toward each other as a family, within society, and forever in connection to the land and its layers of history.

At once both sweeping and intimate, O’Farrell layers in multiple, novel points of view as though we’re zooming in and out on a map of this family, seeing through the lens of different family members, the dog Bran, the neighbor midwife, the British surveying team, even a baby in utero.

Literary fiction with lyrical prose. Recommended for you if you liked/loved Hamnet, if you enjoy sweeping family sagas with a dash of the mystical, if you are patient with pacing in order to build to the overall payoff of a beautiful story. Layered with themes/strands of mystery, folklore, connection, faith and reason, generational legacies, colonization, the mystical and the concrete tasks of survival.

"The two share the same dream: a landscape weighed down from above with great billowing clouds that part and merge, letting in the light and obscuring it, over and over again." (218)

"He thinks about what she said about wanting to go travel beyond the edges of maps, to find what was there and he recognizes in that moment that she has gone beyond the limits of parental reach, far beyond, that she will never again reside within it." (223)

[Shannon Henry]

saw a quote about maps so ofc i'll be reading this

[Kristine]

I Want to Read This: It is By Maggie O’Farrell! 💖💖💖

I love her writing. This story sounds so close to her heart.

Release Date is: June 2, 2026

[Ada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Land comença als anys 60s del segle xix (uns anys després de la gran fam) i explica la història (tràgica, diria jo) d'una família irlandesa. El pare es dedica a fer mapes per l'exèrcit britànic fins que un dia passa una cosa (una mica màgica) i decideix traslladar tota la familia (dona, dues filles i dos fills) de Dublín al sud-oest de la illa, a un poble remot i solitari.

Land, a la vegada, crec que intenta ser la història d'Irlanda com a terra, territorri ocupat, país i nació. Però és sobretot la història d'aquesta família i els seus infortunis, que sens dubte van lligats a la terra d'on vénen.

He de dir que em vaig avorrir una mica a la primera part, i que a partir de la segona tot agafa un altre ritme. Però no passa res per avorrir-se, el meu problema principal amb el llibre ha sigut que, tot i utilitzar un dels meus tipus de narradors preferits (l'omniscient que es permet passar d'un personatge a l'altra de manera simultània per molt que estiguin a diferents llocs del món, el narrador que sap què passa amb el vent, els arbres, l'aire, que sap i entén el passat i el futur del que narra), no he pogut evitar notar una certa artificialitat en aquest recurs, com també en l'ús d'un realisme màgic en el que no hi he entrat gens.

També he de dir que hi ha unes 30 pàgines on l'autora va molt lluny en el temps, i si haguéssin seguit moltes més, potser l'hagués deixat, perquè per mi no funcionen i aporten poc a la història.

No em trec la sensació de que hi ha alguna cosa forçada en la novel·la.

[Sarah]

Like land itself, this sublime novel expands and contracts. It's both epic and intimate. Set mostly on a penninsula in the west of Ireland, it covers a millennium of history but its focus is on the indelible characters of Tomás, Phina and their children, including a very large, very good, dog called Bran.

I took my time, reading it closely, savouring every line. And even when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. I'm still thinking about it and how land holds memories, its history.

For those, like me, who loved the flea scene in Hamnet, there is a scene with a skylark that will scratch that itch!

It may be only February, but LAND is destined to be one of my favourite reads of 2026!

" This house is a thing both ancient and disjointed, an entity of addition and subtraction, a palimpsest of stone and would and caulk and mud. Its existence here, on the peninsula, is proof that everything was once something else: nothing goes away. " p156

" the seabirds shriek and keen above his head, gliding in huge and invisible circles, and the merciless rocks of the island where he will spend months of his life loom ever closer, and Tomás sees himself as if on a map of the entire country, a pinprick, a fleck, tiny, and wholly insignificant." p213

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ireland after the Great Hunger is the setting for this story of a family and a peninsula where they live. The family's father Tomas is a mapmaker working for the British redcoats, attempting to have his son Liam follow in his trade. Seraphina, or Phina, his wife, shares his devastating background in the Hunger. Together they have four children including Liam, Enda, Rose, and Eugene, and a magnificent loyal Irish wolfhound named Bran. The sweeping scope of this novel includes the pre-history of the land they live on, the hardscrabble life of a farmer, the role of the Catholic church, the terrible loneliness of emigration in the days before easy communication, and the connection formed to the land and the community. Beautiful writing, unforgettable characters, and a clear eye for history makes this an unforgettable reading experience.

[Donna]

Oh, Maggie O'Farrell, you've done it again. I was immediately swept away to 1860s Ireland - the saga of Tomas and his family beckoned me, held me fast, broke and mended my heart. Land will be on the "best of" lists for 2026.

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may be the only person on the planet that hasn't yet read Hamnet, so this was my first Maggie O'Farrell book. I've heard so many good things about Hamnet, and it is on my TBR, I just haven't gotten to it yet.

Land is a story of family, parent and sibling relationships, fate, life decisions and their repercussions, faith, ghosts, and community. Liam's father, Tomas, is a map maker who enlists Liam for help as he draws intricate maps for the Redcoats. When Tomas has a life-changing experience at a well said to be inhabited by ancient spirits, Liam is forced to finish the maps; his family's livelihood depends on the money made from completing the maps. Tomas' experience sets in motion a change for Liam, his parents, and his siblings, Enda, Rose, and Eugene. The book follows the family through trips across the oceans, illness, friendships, betrayals, and coming home.

I cannot overstate how wonderful this book was. The writing was lyrical. I found myself going over certain passages multiple times because it was so beautifully written. I was invested in the lives of these characters, staying up entirely too late to read just one more chapter, just one more chapter, just one more chapter.

I loved how this book wove history throughout the novel. The great famine of Ireland, the role that the church played in everyday life of the Irish people, the sense of community that was formed during the turbulent times of the British occupation. I learned so much about Irish history and life that I didn't know before, especially through the lens of farming and reliance on the land.

This has easily become my top 2026 book so far. I didn't want it to end. 5 well-deserved ​⭐s.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for an advanced copy. The book is scheduled to be published on June 2, 2026.

[ColleenSC (colleenallbooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to @aaknopf for a free copy of Land by Maggie O’Farrell. With an unexpected snow day yesterday, I was able to finish this book, which comes out June 2nd. Through the story of a mapmaker and his family, O’Farrell explores with her trademark eloquence our ties to the land, our myriad beliefs and superstitions, the sad tendency of powerful institutions to turn away from vulnerability and suffering, and of course the particular experience of the Irish during and after the Great Famine. But amongst these lofty themes, the central beating heart of this tale is family, the unbreakable family ties that cross time and distance and are more lasting than land, superstitions, armies, and riches can ever be. O’Farrell examines family relationships so honestly. The frustrations, the struggles, the battles of will that develop as children grow older. In all the books I’ve read by her, I love how she gets to the relatable core of a specific situation and time.

This book made me think about my family since around 75% of my genetic makeup is from Ireland. Most of my relatives left Ireland throughout the 1800s, with the latest moving in the 1860s. So it is very possible that some of them experienced the difficult times of the famine. I love how O’Farrell suggests that our connections to family are there, maybe even in ways of which we aren’t conscious. It could be that the landscapes we are drawn to or the abilities that come naturally are the echoes of the past, living on in yet another generation.

I will say, some of her takes on the land were very North Woods-esque, but without the stylistic risks that Daniel Mason took. I prefer his treatment of that concept, while I prefer her treatment of family connections. Her writing is, as ever, beautiful and stunning. I always learn new words when I read her books. This book made me think and I can see myself rereading it. I call that a major winner.

Do you ever think about what events your ancestors have experienced? Do you feel a connection to those who came before you?

#aaknopf #land #upcomingrelease #maggieofarrell

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Land is a departure in some ways for Maggie O’Farrell, but it is also a return. A homecoming to her Irish heritage, Land draws inspiration from her great-great-grandfather who drew maps for the British army, as readers follow Tomás, who does the same. This book is multigenerational, jumping between two times, the second of which where his children are grown. This is as much a book about family as it is about the land on which they live. The land itself is a character and informs much of what the characters do and their values. A part of their daily lives, but also a deeper sense of place and belonging. Colonization, conformity, religion, history, heritage, and the delicate balance that’s struck between them. It’s all in Land.
Per usual, her prose is immaculate, her descriptions thorough and intricate. This is what I love about Maggie O’Farrell, and she flaunts it in Land. I know that I missed so many descriptions reading this, and I can’t wait to reread a physical copy. This reminded me a little of North Woods by Daniel Mason, just with the idea of the land being a character. It’s so awesome. Shoutout Ireland.

Got this arc from NetGalley! Thank you! Cannot express how excited I was to read this!

[Linda Grana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The "land", in Maggie O'Farrell's latest work of historical fiction, is the country of Ireland. More specifically, the landscape and geography of that country, which is surveyed and measured by a local cartographer, and his son. It is a land where there stands a copse of trees, in which there exists a magical stream. It is this very stream, and coming in contact with it, that changes the lives of Tomas, his son Liam, and their entire family. As you journey with this family that has recently survived The Great Hunger, through their lives, loves, and losses—you also come to view this land as a somewhat human, breathing thing—a character in the story.
I love how there's elements of Daniel Mason's "Northwoods"; even a scene or two that brings to mind Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" in this novel. The author has woven a story of tragedy, survival, guilt, regret—but also of wonder and hope. "Land" is Maggie O'Farrell's best book to date.
Thank you Knopf and NetGalley for the early reading copy!

[Mia]

No star ratings for work related things but my oh MY that was just incredible

[Tova]

This sounds like Translations by Brian Friel, but make it Maggie O'Farrell, I am excited!!

[Nadia Gustab · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the Best Books of All Time

The love I have for this epic Irish tale of suffering, grief, relationships, poverty and exploration of land. Despite lacking chapters, the book flowed in such a lyrical and smooth way that it felt as though the story was unfolding before me, or someone was telling me this tale. The first few pages I was very unsure whether this book will be for me, yet I’ve been so absolutely consumed by its characters, the narrative, the growth. Land is a sweeping story that covers a life of the family from the beginning right to the end, through births, deaths and troubles. It embeds Gaelic folklore and magic realism so flawlessly that it left me stunned and contemplating the ideas it discussed, wanting to find out more. It was such an emotional rollercoaster, and it will stick with me for a very long time.

[Traci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received ARC from Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book I respected more than I enjoyed. Maggie O’Farrell’s writing is beautiful and immersive, with a strong sense of place and thoughtful themes around history, memory, and loss. The land itself feels alive, which is one of the novel’s biggest strengths.

The character development is complex and well done, but emotionally it never quite worked for me. Even with richly drawn characters, I struggled to feel connected to any of them.

This book was hard to get through. The pacing is slow and demanding, and while that suits the reflective tone, it made the reading experience feel like effort rather than engagement.

For me, it was a solid but challenging read that didn’t fully land.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

O’Farrell’s newest novel, Land, opens 20 years after the potato famine has ravaged Ireland. Tomas and his son Liam are on a peninsula in the West of Ireland creating maps as part of the Ordinance Survey in 1865. Tomas sees his maps as a documentation of the disaster that befell the Irish people and ravaged the community. While surveying the land, Tomas disappears into a copse and reappears a different man. Ten-year-old Liam is left to try to understand this turn in his father’s life. This is where the story begins.

But this story is much more than a father son relationship. It is an expansive story of what happens to a family who struggles with facing the tragedies of the past. It is a story of ancient lands, survival, and grief. It is a reflection on those moments in life which change everything. How would life be different if his father didn't lose himself in his maps and the land? O’Farrell’s writing is simply beautiful. She creates deep complex characters who stay with you even after you turn the last page. It took me longer than usual to finish this book as it is not an easy read. There is little redemption for this family, and I found myself needing to take time to breathe after sometimes just reading a few pages. This is a book to read slowly. It is writing to savor. Give yourself time. It will be worth it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for an advanced reader copy of this book.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance reader copy in exchange for a review.
Unique and almost indescribable, Maggie O’Farrell writes the book she always wanted to write. And I am here for it!
Rounding up to 5*, I dock it only because the switching characters is a challenge. Not only do you switch perspectives but time, going backwards and forwards, one paragraph to the next. The gentle reader needs to stay focused! This leads to some confusion in the beginning as you jump way forward or back in time. Once you latch on though, it’s absorbing! I found myself thinking about the book at work, anxious for the cup of tea, dogs on lap, and reading until I fell asleep. The only other person thing I don’t love is the lack of chapters, but no matter.
I spent the entirety wondering, hoping, gasping, crying, and praying for these people.
It’s a 4.5 rounded to 5 for me!
Movie?

[dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was absolutely floored by this book. I found myself both reading it compulsively and procrastinating picking it up because of the emotional rollercoaster that would await me when I did.

Without going into spoiler territory, Land is a book about Ireland. It's a book about colonialism and persecution, about the pseudo-feudalism of Victorian Anglo-Irish relations, the Great Hunger, and the sheer devastation the British reaped upon Ireland. It's about Protestant and Jesuit persecution of Pagan faith, the wiping out of the Irish language, the environmental destruction caused by British industrialism, and the varying degrees of fury and numbness that hide deep mourning as means of survival. I found it fascinating how, similar to Shakespeare in Hamnet, the British are never explicitly named. They are mainly called the Redcoats, or other names given to them by the Irish population. This choice made the threat of their presence all-the-more threatening, while also keeping the book's perspective squarely on the Irish characters.

The family carries a kind of gentleness and understanding for each other that was so moving. Though the family fights, though they are pried apart by various forces in their lives, they always seek to come back to each other. The book is written in free indirect style which is such a brilliant choice for a story in which the inner worlds of the characters are crucial for it being as affecting as it has to be. We can view this family from an outsider perspective, we can see their movements and their expressions, and we can juxtapose them to the rest of 1850s-80s Ireland. They are in so many ways an ordinary family, yet in so many more they are anything but. Their individual perspectives lend so well to the book as a result. I think the style also helps us to understand the more drastic measures the characters take; though we may want them to make different decisions we understand their thought process acutely. O'Farrell really puts us in each character's head, and not just the family's. She clearly thought a lot about each individual person's thoughts and feelings while writing, which is something I will always appreciate.

The family, with Tomás as patriarch, must survive what they are witnessing, so Tomás keeps his fury within his four walls. But he can barely contain himself; he despises the redcoats, despises the work he knows he must do for them to get by, knows they have run out of options monetarily. The opening line, 'Tomás was a man of ever few words', carries more significance than one would immediately expect. The first part was stunning, and sets clear boundaries on the familial, environmental, and national power imbalances at play. The twists that O'Farrell wishes to set up pay off astoundingly well, being both understated and incredibly powerful at once. The characters are full and alive while still being placed perfectly into the folk-tale setting of the book. When reading I found myself on the edge of my seat, needing these characters to be okay. I celebrated their triumphs and mourned their losses.

And what surrounds it all is the pastoral. O'Farrell does such a brilliant job at portraying the environment, and a particular copse/pond, as the book's anchor point and a character. The earth around them has a kind of patience and understanding, a sadness at how it is being pillaged yet an appreciation for how this family treats it. Tomás, though he can be convinced to work for the redcoats, never lets them see this copse. He guards it with all his might. He can never leave it for too long. It represents to him a drop point into the earth's core. His family don't quite understand, even judge him for his idiosyncracies, except Eugene.

Eugene's portrayal as someone with a developmental disability that results in an inability to speak was, in my opinion, deeply heartfelt and sensitive. I felt that how he was received by his community with varying degrees of acceptance, some calling him simple or useless, yet O'Farrell shows us clearly that he is anything but. He is accutely, painfully aware of the world, and while his disability makes it difficult for him to process certain phenomenons (loss of loved ones in particular) he is fully capable of living a long, beautiful life. I loved how clear the love his family had for him, and that the gentle understanding they gave to him was never fully spelled out, only shown in their actions. O'Farrell is excellent at showing instead of telling. She showed us how he communicated, his motivations, the very real accommodations he required and that his family made for him. Most of all though, she showed us his spirit. I loved how he got to speak for himself in the book, it touched me deeply. I would be interested to see how those with in similar situations as Eugene (perhaps selective mutism is the closest diagnosis?) find this book's portrayal. I only hope they find joy and understanding in his narrative, but of course I can't speak further with any authority.

Truly my only gripe with this book is that it uses the phrase 'they [she/he etc.] let out a breath they didn't know they were holding' twice. Which I know is silly, it's just a pet peeve of mine, and it doesn't get in the way of this being an otherwise flawless book. This novel only solidifies my belief that Maggie O'Farrell is a master of the novel. Absolutely outstanding, a story that will stick with me for a long time.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was wonderful, and the most Irish book ever, so it was great that I happened to be reading it on St. Patrick's Day.

It starts in 1865, a bit more than a decade after the Great Famine in Ireland. I knew about this famine, but until I read this book, I never truly considered the trauma it must have left in its wake. In places where there had been whole villages full of children, the famine left ruins, many of the cottages empty, many of the children dead. A million people starved or died of starvation-related illnesses, and millions more emigrated, as the English lords who owned all the land grew fields of gated and heavily guarded grain. Many villages lost about two thirds of their population. This novel is about a family, and both of the parents in this family, Tomas and Phina, have lost their entire families of origin. Tomas is definitely in a pretty broken state as a result of his past, but he has his family, and is working, making maps for the British, who are busily mapping Ireland, probably to make it easier to exploit.

The land in the title is a little peninsula in County Cork, where Tomas and his son Liam are working on this map. They discover a place there, a copse that is magical, maybe wonderful and maybe terrible. The family winds up moving close to this copse, renting a bit of land where they can farm and keep livestock. In one of my favorite parts of this novel, the author goes way back in time and tells the story of this peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic and of people who lived there. Then she returns to the family, to the oldest son, who decides he wants to be a priest, the wild oldest daughter who lives for music, to Rose, who tries to hold all these chaotic people together and mostly fails, and to Eugene, the youngest, who is probably autistic, who doesn't speak because he's so busy listening and paying attention to everything around him. There are dogs, too. They are very good boys. I don't really want a dog, but now I kind of want an Irish wolfhound?

And the writing. Maggie O'Farrell (who wrote Hamnet, which I also really loved) writes so beautifully.

Spoilers below:



























Jaysus! It drove me crazy that people could just LOSE each other when they changed addresses. Phina's father, Liam losing everyone and then not connecting with Eugene when Eugene was right there. It left me so unsettled. But I guess it was the way of the world for poor people before phones and Internet and even directories.

[Kate Downey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maggie O'Farrell is an enchantress. It's all about the prose, for me. And this woman could write a comparative analysis of the price of, I don't know, cured cheese across all continents of the late 17th century and I would be here for her prose.
From the opening scene on a rain-driven wilderness that is the west coast of Ireland in 1865, I was invested in Liam and Tomás. This, for me, was the thread that mattered. The tension between these two, the ensuing choices, communications, adopted beliefs was what this book addressed best.
Perhaps, at times O'Farrell got distracted from this with the other siblings, their own place in the story and the importance of what they experienced. There was a fierce tangle of narrative, shooting off in different directions and footing was lost, I feel, at times. I didn't mind because I was being enchanted by her language. Plot gave way to description but I definitely didn't mind that either.
I think O'Farrell had an idea that was unwieldy, and wrangling with matter such as what the land holds, what lore is associated with this well, that alignment, those hills, whose bones have become strata beneath our feet, what blood and flesh is merged with stone and soil, how is this place anointed and who haunts it, all this matter is messy, slippery and a bit like the wind (yes, my eyebrows shot up at salmons and wells and rings) and gave us an ending that must surely generate discussion. (an excellent thing).
At a time when so many stories seem to rely on overtly-sentimental plot lines, asking the reader to feel at the expense of thinking critically, O'Farrell reminds us that some authors can hit both spots which is exactly what she does with Land. We are reminded of the price of colonialism, of who writes history and what gets erased. We see the immense influence of the church and its own imperial reach. The immense suffering of the Irish (my people) has often in my own learning been secondary to the supposed benefits of the British systems imposed upon my country. O'Farrell questions what has been lost, and not just in Ireland, but the world over where indigenous culture and ways of living as part of the environment are systematically dismantled, erased.
Land is not without its faults but it remains a great swell of story, a pull back to what makes us, to belonging, reminding us through history of what makes us human, and through emotion, how to remain human.

[Claire Talbot · Rating 5 out of 5]

A melancholy history of the land of Ireland, and the sadness and determination of its people. It is difficult to describe this book, and honestly, I'm not sure I understand all of it reading it only once in a digital format. The story begins with Tomas and his son, Liam, who are surveying a peninsula in Western Ireland, and come across a copse with an enchanted stream. Tomas becomes possessed by a spirit from the spring and his families' life is forever changed. The book flashes back to ancient times, and also to how Tomas and his wife, Phina, met and married. The couple have four children - Enda, Liam, Rose, and Eugene. Each child has a distinct relationship within the family, and with Ireland. Edna resents her family when they leave the village, and move to the surveyed area in the west in a remote cottage - music becomes her savior, and she is always restless - resisting the traditional roles of a female of house and home. Liam is scarred for life by the manic episode of his father, and turns to religion to escape. Rose wants nothing more that to be home with her family, and looses her security when death and danger come her her. Eugene is different from birth - never speaking, and having an almost communal existence with his homeland. It sounds odd, but you learn much of the history of Ireland through this family. I will be thinking about this book for a long time. Thank you to Netgalley for an advance reader copy.

[Rae | The Finer Things Club CA · Rating 5 out of 5]

𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥 is a family saga. With inspiration from her own great-great-grandfather who worked on early maps of Ireland, writer Maggie O’Farrell tells the story of husband and wife Tomás and Phina and their children Liam, Enda, Rose, and Eugene. The novel begins in 1865, with Tomás surveying and drafting a map of a desolate Irish peninsula for the British Ordnance Survey, with ten-year-old Liam as his reluctant apprentice. But the book spans centuries and the globe, exploring the lives of not only the family on their homestead but also the primitive inhabitants of the land, Tomás and Phina’s childhoods elsewhere in the country during the Great Hunger, and Liam, Enda, Rose, and Eugene’s adulthoods in and beyond Ireland. The perspective changes from family member to family member—and even includes the points of view of their dog and neighbors in some scenes—adding to the epic scope of the story.

𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥 is beautifully written with rich descriptions of the family’s lives and their environments. However, I would recommend the novel only to very patient readers who love historical drama and a bit of magical realism, as it has a sluggish start, meandering prose, and a plot that is often deeply sad and bordering on histrionic. But once the story finally finds its footing and the pace builds, it’s not difficult to appreciate the intricate writing and the unfolding histories.

4.5 stars rounded up. Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Alix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well it's beautiful and it was a page turner, but it was also a difficult read. I've been researching a family who emigrated from Ireland to New Hampshire in the wake of the Great Hunger and following that family's descendants to today, so it was interesting for me to read a historical fiction about this period. Tomás and his son Liam are working as surveyors in 1865, and they have a predicament -- to give the British every detail of their beloved homeland as required, or not. Tomás realizes, "It could exist on a map, or it could exist on the land." This is such a beautiful recognition of the way documents shape the land and our relationship with it. There was almost a feel of magical realism as Liam and Tomás have a life-changing experience in a copse of trees, but that's not really the overall vibe. The book takes us on a journey back and forth in time to millennia ago, and then follows the four children of Tomás and his wife Phina, who each have different relationships with Ireland. I particularly loved Enda, the eldest daughter, who plays the fiddle so well that O'Farrell writes "The music she plays is the land: it summons it; it conjures it," no matter when Enda goes.

I'd recommend this book for people who like Kristin Hannah's books but think they could be a little sadder, people whose great-great-great grandparents emigrated from Ireland, and people whose favorite exhibit in the National Museum of Ireland was a bog body.

CW for death of a parent, amputation, sexual assault, and death of a dog

[Katie Urban · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into this novel, but once I was in, I was hooked. A good reminder that sometimes a novel is even better when you are patient with pacing. Set mostly on a remote peninsula in western Ireland in 1865, this novel beautifully covers historical facts, while also gorgeously building the characters of a simple family: Tomas, his wife Phina, and their four children, Liam, Enda, Rose, and Eugene, and a magnificent, loyal Irish wolfhound named Bran.

This book is perfect for anyone looking for a sweeping Irish epic. It covers so much: the hard truth of life in Ireland during the Great Hunger, the role of the Catholic Church at the time, the sheer loneliness of emigration, and the connections each character has to the land of their birth. It's also a novel about separation and reunions, even missed ones. One scene in which Enda has no idea she's playing music with her own grandfather in a pub in the New World (Quebec) was just heartbreaking.

This was truly an unforgettable reading experience. Can't wait to also see this Maggie O'Farrell novel come to life on the big screen (as it will, since film rights have already been scooped up)! Thank you, NetGalley, for the early digital copy!