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Land
'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.
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.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published June 2, 2026
About the author
Maggie O'Farrell
46 books19.6k followersMaggie 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,237 reviews
June 2, 2026
I thought I understood the Irish Potato Famine that killed more than a million people and sent millions more fleeing abroad. But a few years ago, during a tour of Trinity College Dublin, our guide paused to mention the Great Hunger.
He couldn’t have been more than 30 years old, but the fury in his voice had not cooled since the 1850s. The cruelty of the British government, its catastrophic inaction in the face of mass starvation — that wasn’t history to this young man. It felt as raw and immediate as the loss of his own siblings.
Maggie O’Farrell, who was born in Northern Ireland, opens her new novel, Land, in 1865, during the stunned aftermath of the Great Hunger, on the famine-scarred west coast of Ireland. Towns have shriveled. Villages have emptied. Rows of empty cottages have succumbed to rot.
It’s here on a damp, windswept promontory that we find a pair of Irishmen, Tomás and his dutiful 10-year-old son, Liam. They’re working for the British army, part of the enormous Ordnance Survey to map — and further subjugate — Ireland. Despite deeply conflicted feelings about his employer, Tomás is tireless and taciturn. Having survived the famine that took every member of his family, he knows the importance of steady work, the necessity of submission.
“He is the only one of their division,” O’Farrell writes, “who can measure and calculate, draw detailed draft maps in ink for the engravers to copy, and also converse with the people about where the boundaries lie, who owns which field, what this valley or that bluff is called and why, where might the ruins of this building be.”
As she demonstrated in Hamnet, her magnificent novel about the death of Shakespeare’s only son, O’Farrell once again opens up the past like she’s cracking a geode. Suddenly, the undulating fields are sparkling in the moist air, redolent with the incongruous scents of peat and political oppression.
Stomping into a copse to retrieve Liam’s lost boot, Tomás stumbles upon a....
You can read the rest of this review for free on Substack:
https://roncharles.substack.com/p/in-...
He couldn’t have been more than 30 years old, but the fury in his voice had not cooled since the 1850s. The cruelty of the British government, its catastrophic inaction in the face of mass starvation — that wasn’t history to this young man. It felt as raw and immediate as the loss of his own siblings.
Maggie O’Farrell, who was born in Northern Ireland, opens her new novel, Land, in 1865, during the stunned aftermath of the Great Hunger, on the famine-scarred west coast of Ireland. Towns have shriveled. Villages have emptied. Rows of empty cottages have succumbed to rot.
It’s here on a damp, windswept promontory that we find a pair of Irishmen, Tomás and his dutiful 10-year-old son, Liam. They’re working for the British army, part of the enormous Ordnance Survey to map — and further subjugate — Ireland. Despite deeply conflicted feelings about his employer, Tomás is tireless and taciturn. Having survived the famine that took every member of his family, he knows the importance of steady work, the necessity of submission.
“He is the only one of their division,” O’Farrell writes, “who can measure and calculate, draw detailed draft maps in ink for the engravers to copy, and also converse with the people about where the boundaries lie, who owns which field, what this valley or that bluff is called and why, where might the ruins of this building be.”
As she demonstrated in Hamnet, her magnificent novel about the death of Shakespeare’s only son, O’Farrell once again opens up the past like she’s cracking a geode. Suddenly, the undulating fields are sparkling in the moist air, redolent with the incongruous scents of peat and political oppression.
Stomping into a copse to retrieve Liam’s lost boot, Tomás stumbles upon a....
You can read the rest of this review for free on Substack:
https://roncharles.substack.com/p/in-...
April 19, 2026
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.
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.
June 21, 2026
Just the name of this title speaks of its expanse. O’Farrell takes us back through history on a journey unlikely to be forgotten.
The story begins mid 1860’s. Tomas, a cartologist, and his son Liam, are out mapping the country for the redcoats. One day, they find a copse in a valley which is distinctly different- magical- and it changes them.
Mid way, we are sent to the land even earlier. Here are the natives. Those who have lived and found these rivers. A young girl, Brith and her dog, roam the area until it is decided by the elders she is to be sacrificed for the gods to look favourably upon the land and replenish it. But this does not happen. Many perish of the Great Hunger.
O’Farrell’s journey and exploration of the land reflects those who deeply respect it and those who colonize and pillage it.
This is also a story of a family. How the land has shaped them into who they become; How it has also destroyed them as a unit.
The magical realism I wasn't sure of, however, O'Farrell does it in a graceful and seamless way.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending but I do know I remain an adoring fan of O’Farrell’s beatific writing.
4.5⭐️
The story begins mid 1860’s. Tomas, a cartologist, and his son Liam, are out mapping the country for the redcoats. One day, they find a copse in a valley which is distinctly different- magical- and it changes them.
Mid way, we are sent to the land even earlier. Here are the natives. Those who have lived and found these rivers. A young girl, Brith and her dog, roam the area until it is decided by the elders she is to be sacrificed for the gods to look favourably upon the land and replenish it. But this does not happen. Many perish of the Great Hunger.
O’Farrell’s journey and exploration of the land reflects those who deeply respect it and those who colonize and pillage it.
This is also a story of a family. How the land has shaped them into who they become; How it has also destroyed them as a unit.
The magical realism I wasn't sure of, however, O'Farrell does it in a graceful and seamless way.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending but I do know I remain an adoring fan of O’Farrell’s beatific writing.
4.5⭐️
June 21, 2026
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.
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.
June 25, 2026
this is why I love reading!!!!!! actual review to come when thinking about this book doesn't make me want to cry
June 17, 2026
2.5 Stars
As always, Maggie O'Farrell's writing is beautiful. The descriptions of the Irish landscape are vivid and atmospheric and haunting.
I was so excited to get my hands on this book as I love books by this author and was even more excited to learn she was setting this one in Ireland in the aftermath of the Irish Famine.
This started out promising and tells the story of Thomas and his son Liam mapping a peninsula in Ireland using surveying poles and measuring chains for the English. A famine survivor himself, who is dealing with his own ghosts he is glad of the work to put food on the table and the opportunity to record the empty homes and graveyards scared by the famine.
However much I wanted to love this book, I just couldn't connect with the story or the characters and felt it was dense, drawn out and soulless. I think I needed more history or just a good story to keep me rooting for the characters. This type of book I would normally devour in a few nights but this one dragged out for a week and a half. I am not a fan of magic realism and perhaps this is why I didn't love the novel as it has quite a lot of sprinklings of fairy dust.
The family's hardships was relentless and I was glad to part ways with them by the end of the novel.
Not one for my favourite shelf despite ordering a hard copy but perhaps it will find more joy on another readers bookshelf.
As always, Maggie O'Farrell's writing is beautiful. The descriptions of the Irish landscape are vivid and atmospheric and haunting.
I was so excited to get my hands on this book as I love books by this author and was even more excited to learn she was setting this one in Ireland in the aftermath of the Irish Famine.
This started out promising and tells the story of Thomas and his son Liam mapping a peninsula in Ireland using surveying poles and measuring chains for the English. A famine survivor himself, who is dealing with his own ghosts he is glad of the work to put food on the table and the opportunity to record the empty homes and graveyards scared by the famine.
However much I wanted to love this book, I just couldn't connect with the story or the characters and felt it was dense, drawn out and soulless. I think I needed more history or just a good story to keep me rooting for the characters. This type of book I would normally devour in a few nights but this one dragged out for a week and a half. I am not a fan of magic realism and perhaps this is why I didn't love the novel as it has quite a lot of sprinklings of fairy dust.
The family's hardships was relentless and I was glad to part ways with them by the end of the novel.
Not one for my favourite shelf despite ordering a hard copy but perhaps it will find more joy on another readers bookshelf.
February 10, 2026
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.
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.
June 14, 2026
I had been looking forward to Land (2026) by Maggie O'Farrell for months. Unfortunately, my reading experience can be summarized in one sentence: high hopes gave way to disappointment.
Land is a historical novel set in Ireland in 1865 at the beginning, in the wake of the Great Famine. At the outset, it follows Tomás, a surveyor and mapmaker working for the British Ordnance Survey, as he and his young son Liam map a remote coastal peninsula. From there, the novel gradually evolves into a family saga. I found the first half of the book distinctively better. I thoroughly enjoyed the evocative nature descriptions and the magical elements of Irish folklore woven into the realistic narrative. Magical realism resurfaces at the very end of the novel, though in a rather bizarre way.
The second half of the book feels as if it were written by a different author. Sometimes there is a palpable lack of direction in the plot, as if Maggie O'Farrell was a bit unsure where the story should go. To compensate for this, she introduces a relentless succession of misfortunes and family tragedies. This parade of hardships became insufferable and seemed to lead nowhere, making it feel as though the author cared mostly about giving the reader a repeated emotional jolt.
At a certain point, I noticed that this excess of misery began to numb rather than move me. I caught myself coldly calculating what kind of calamity we could expect next. I felt like a character in a video game, wandering around through a landscape of predetermined disasters and waiting for the next blow to land. Gradually, my sympathy for Tomás and his family gave way to frustration with the author. Don't let the lush, vibrant colours on the cover fool you—they bear little resemblance to the bleak world contained within. I was genuinely surprised that O'Farrell never provided a meaningful counterweight to all this suffering.
It was also vexing that the plausibility of several events felt problematic. Could a poor widow, who owned nothing but a single cow, really afford to take in and feed a family with three children for at least a few weeks? Would Tomás be able to rebuild the ruins of a house on his own, in such a short time? The narrator explicitly notes that the local fisherman's visits during the construction were rather social. Furthermore, the ruins were located on a mountain that required an exhausting trek to reach. Besides, how on earth was dead body identified when it was found several days' walking distance from home? The area seemed entirely uninhabited, and there was no radio, telegraph, newspapers, etc. Just a few examples. On top of that, there are coincidences whose probability strains belief—such as Enda and her grandfather ending up in the exact same restaurant in Canada.
Both Hamnet (which I loved) and The Marriage Portrait (which I quite liked) possessed a deliberate structure. You could tell there was a core vision that O'Farrell executed with ironclad consistency. Here, by contrast, I felt as though I were being led by a tour guide who began the journey with only the vaguest outline of the route and improvised the rest along the way. Ironically, the story of a cartographer and his family seemed to need a better map.
I truly envy the readers who were once again swept under the spell of Maggie O'Farrell's storytelling and fell in love with this book. I didn't, despite my best efforts, although there were aspects that I admired immensely. I adore Ireland and have long been fascinated by its history and culture, so it was a pleasure to read a novel set during a lesser-known period of the country's past. I cannot judge its historical accuracy, but at times, it felt as though the novel was set in the Middle Ages rather than the late 19th century.
Some passages were truly stunning, especially at the beginning, and I appreciated the strong environmental and feminist undercurrents. One of the novel's strengths is its title: it works on multiple levels. I particularly enjoyed the range of meanings it suggests, from the physical landscape to the notion of a Promised Land. The book is also highly cinematic; a film adaptation is likely just a matter of time. All in all, I'm probably the one to blame: had my expectations not been so elevated, Land would have resonated with me more.
Land is a historical novel set in Ireland in 1865 at the beginning, in the wake of the Great Famine. At the outset, it follows Tomás, a surveyor and mapmaker working for the British Ordnance Survey, as he and his young son Liam map a remote coastal peninsula. From there, the novel gradually evolves into a family saga. I found the first half of the book distinctively better. I thoroughly enjoyed the evocative nature descriptions and the magical elements of Irish folklore woven into the realistic narrative. Magical realism resurfaces at the very end of the novel, though in a rather bizarre way.
The second half of the book feels as if it were written by a different author. Sometimes there is a palpable lack of direction in the plot, as if Maggie O'Farrell was a bit unsure where the story should go. To compensate for this, she introduces a relentless succession of misfortunes and family tragedies. This parade of hardships became insufferable and seemed to lead nowhere, making it feel as though the author cared mostly about giving the reader a repeated emotional jolt.
At a certain point, I noticed that this excess of misery began to numb rather than move me. I caught myself coldly calculating what kind of calamity we could expect next. I felt like a character in a video game, wandering around through a landscape of predetermined disasters and waiting for the next blow to land. Gradually, my sympathy for Tomás and his family gave way to frustration with the author. Don't let the lush, vibrant colours on the cover fool you—they bear little resemblance to the bleak world contained within. I was genuinely surprised that O'Farrell never provided a meaningful counterweight to all this suffering.
It was also vexing that the plausibility of several events felt problematic. Could a poor widow, who owned nothing but a single cow, really afford to take in and feed a family with three children for at least a few weeks? Would Tomás be able to rebuild the ruins of a house on his own, in such a short time? The narrator explicitly notes that the local fisherman's visits during the construction were rather social. Furthermore, the ruins were located on a mountain that required an exhausting trek to reach. Besides, how on earth was dead body identified when it was found several days' walking distance from home? The area seemed entirely uninhabited, and there was no radio, telegraph, newspapers, etc. Just a few examples. On top of that, there are coincidences whose probability strains belief—such as Enda and her grandfather ending up in the exact same restaurant in Canada.
Both Hamnet (which I loved) and The Marriage Portrait (which I quite liked) possessed a deliberate structure. You could tell there was a core vision that O'Farrell executed with ironclad consistency. Here, by contrast, I felt as though I were being led by a tour guide who began the journey with only the vaguest outline of the route and improvised the rest along the way. Ironically, the story of a cartographer and his family seemed to need a better map.
I truly envy the readers who were once again swept under the spell of Maggie O'Farrell's storytelling and fell in love with this book. I didn't, despite my best efforts, although there were aspects that I admired immensely. I adore Ireland and have long been fascinated by its history and culture, so it was a pleasure to read a novel set during a lesser-known period of the country's past. I cannot judge its historical accuracy, but at times, it felt as though the novel was set in the Middle Ages rather than the late 19th century.
Some passages were truly stunning, especially at the beginning, and I appreciated the strong environmental and feminist undercurrents. One of the novel's strengths is its title: it works on multiple levels. I particularly enjoyed the range of meanings it suggests, from the physical landscape to the notion of a Promised Land. The book is also highly cinematic; a film adaptation is likely just a matter of time. All in all, I'm probably the one to blame: had my expectations not been so elevated, Land would have resonated with me more.
June 28, 2026
Land by Maggie O'Farrell unfolds not as a single story but as a long, patient inquiry into what survives.
The novel follows surveyor-cartographer Tomás and his family after a mystical encounter at an ancient well on the windswept western peninsula of Ireland.
If you have read Hamnet or The Marriage Portrait, you'll recognize the way O’Farrell moves the lens, sitting inside one consciousness for a paragraph, then sliding gently across the room to another.
Here, however, she expands the technique across decades and continents.
Lyrical, slow‑burning, and emotionally brutal, it either lands for you or it doesn’t: some will call it a masterpiece and others will find its weight unbearable.
What stays, after the last page, is not exactly the story. It is the peninsula and the sense that some places are older than the people walking on them and will outlast the maps drawn of them.
The land does not offer closure; it offers continuation.
June 15, 2026
I am stuck somewhere between 4 and 5!
Full review to come!
The year is 1865, Irish peninsula, post the Great Hunger. Villagers are abandoned, homes are ruined, mass graves everywhere. Tomas and his 10 year old son Liam are surveying these lands and the scars that were left behind. Tomas discovers a copse containing a sacred spring and disappears for days. When he reappears, he is a changed man and abandons his old life as a cartographer. He moves his entire family to this remote place despite the increasing strain. As the novel broadens into a multi-generational family saga, the heart of the story is mainly centered at the ancient story beneath the land.
This was one of my selected picks from BOTM. Let's dive in!
Full review to come!
The year is 1865, Irish peninsula, post the Great Hunger. Villagers are abandoned, homes are ruined, mass graves everywhere. Tomas and his 10 year old son Liam are surveying these lands and the scars that were left behind. Tomas discovers a copse containing a sacred spring and disappears for days. When he reappears, he is a changed man and abandons his old life as a cartographer. He moves his entire family to this remote place despite the increasing strain. As the novel broadens into a multi-generational family saga, the heart of the story is mainly centered at the ancient story beneath the land.
This was one of my selected picks from BOTM. Let's dive in!
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May 30, 2026
No one writes historical fiction like Maggie O’Farrell. Her prior works, Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait, remain my all time favorite works of the genre and the two books I always recommend to fans of historical fiction. After finishing her newest work Land, I'll recommend it as well!
Land is an epic saga that is essentially the story of Ireland. Maggie delves into the Green Isles' rich history and the people who have inhabited the land over the centuries. From the potato famine (the great hunger) and the oppression by the wealthy ruling British class, to colonization and the clash between old beliefs and the emergence of Catholicism, Land covers a bit of everything in Ireland’s long, rich history.
Maggie O’Farrell paints a vivid portrait that in her true form is filled with lyrical prose that's nothing short of breathtakingly beautiful. In my opinion, what makes a good book is one that's not only well written but also unforgettable. Land is one of those captivating journeys that sits with the reader long after finishing it.
Land was my number one most anticipated read of the year and it exceeded all of my expectations! I learned so much while reading Land, so much so that I’ll never think of Ireland the same after finishing.
I listened to the audiobook version which is read by Dane Whyte O’Hara who did a brilliant job bringing this compelling story to life. If you decide to pick this one up, I highly recommend this format.
Land by Maggie O’Farrell will be available on June 2. Many thanks to Penguin Random House Audio for the gifted audiobook!
Land is an epic saga that is essentially the story of Ireland. Maggie delves into the Green Isles' rich history and the people who have inhabited the land over the centuries. From the potato famine (the great hunger) and the oppression by the wealthy ruling British class, to colonization and the clash between old beliefs and the emergence of Catholicism, Land covers a bit of everything in Ireland’s long, rich history.
Maggie O’Farrell paints a vivid portrait that in her true form is filled with lyrical prose that's nothing short of breathtakingly beautiful. In my opinion, what makes a good book is one that's not only well written but also unforgettable. Land is one of those captivating journeys that sits with the reader long after finishing it.
Land was my number one most anticipated read of the year and it exceeded all of my expectations! I learned so much while reading Land, so much so that I’ll never think of Ireland the same after finishing.
I listened to the audiobook version which is read by Dane Whyte O’Hara who did a brilliant job bringing this compelling story to life. If you decide to pick this one up, I highly recommend this format.
Land by Maggie O’Farrell will be available on June 2. Many thanks to Penguin Random House Audio for the gifted audiobook!
June 16, 2026
You know, as I do, that was another day that changed everything.
I had this novel on my hold list at my local library and was surprised to get it so quickly (published June 2nd). Maggie O’Farrell sets up a tale about a mapmaker, Tomás, in 1865 on Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry. What I like most is how she builds the characters and relationships of Tomas’s family, his wife, and children. They are like separate pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that she fits together to create a dynamic landscape of interweaving personalities. We see in particular how Liam’s identity revolves around his struggles with his father. Tomás wants his son to follow in his steps as a mapmaker. Mapmaking was an identity that Tomás fully embodied. It enabled his rise from poverty, and he sees it as powerful. He also sees it as a way to resist British occupiers, the very men for whom he works for the Ordnance Survey project.
I am making my own map. I will never cede to their version of geography, of history, of linguistics and toponomy.
Isn’t this a characteristic that most of us have? The desire to walk our own path, not one that’s pocked with the false narratives of others. To draw our own maps is an act of affirmation. Sometimes we have to walk the path to know what it is, where it leads.
O’Farrell dips from the present of 1865 back into Tomás’s childhood, and carries us along lightly, birds riding on the feathery wings of her writing. Her transitions are so smooth, we fly from one point in time to another. Sometimes her prose is so beautiful, I float in an airy dream, not want to move on, but hover over a scene, a hummingbird sipping the bittersweet that locks me into the emotional life of Tomás as a young boy, his dreams, the nature of his creativity, his longings. Tomás doesn’t remember the years of the Great Hunger while he is living at the workhouse, but he is planning with all that is within him to escape. He is an adult when the haunting memories resurface and exact harrowing consequences.
A taciturn man, Tomás is haunted by the ghosts of his past, even before remembering who those ghosts were. His wife also came through the Great Hunger and lost a mother and many siblings, a father who disappeared. They are cut off from their past, from parental love and support, but together they love their children the best that they can. From these lonely parents, O’Farrell fashions a family. She sculpts them all with words. Enda is the firstborn, a year older than Liam. She wishes to be acknowledged as smart and capable as her brother, Liam. Then, there is Rose, a beauty who shadows all her mother’s steps and becomes the keeper of the hearth. Lastly, a baby boy, who seems to soak the land up into his being.
This is a story about how we are molded by families and circumstance, by the land we love and live upon. I thought about how my own experiences with the land shaped me; about how the homes we lived in, and the homes we left behind, had made their mark. My sister and I were much like Enda and Rose, in a time before the internet and too much TV, in love with trees and creeks, dogs, dolls, and playhouses in the woods, always pretending and loving every minute of it. This wonderful book took me to Ireland in 1865 and the years when Tomás’s family was growing up, and it took me back to my past, my own relationship with the land.
This house is a thing both ancient and disjointed, an entity of addition and subtraction, a palimpsest of stone and wood and caulk and mud. Its existence here, on the peninsula, is proof that everything was once something else: nothing goes away.
I had this novel on my hold list at my local library and was surprised to get it so quickly (published June 2nd). Maggie O’Farrell sets up a tale about a mapmaker, Tomás, in 1865 on Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry. What I like most is how she builds the characters and relationships of Tomas’s family, his wife, and children. They are like separate pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that she fits together to create a dynamic landscape of interweaving personalities. We see in particular how Liam’s identity revolves around his struggles with his father. Tomás wants his son to follow in his steps as a mapmaker. Mapmaking was an identity that Tomás fully embodied. It enabled his rise from poverty, and he sees it as powerful. He also sees it as a way to resist British occupiers, the very men for whom he works for the Ordnance Survey project.
I am making my own map. I will never cede to their version of geography, of history, of linguistics and toponomy.
Isn’t this a characteristic that most of us have? The desire to walk our own path, not one that’s pocked with the false narratives of others. To draw our own maps is an act of affirmation. Sometimes we have to walk the path to know what it is, where it leads.
O’Farrell dips from the present of 1865 back into Tomás’s childhood, and carries us along lightly, birds riding on the feathery wings of her writing. Her transitions are so smooth, we fly from one point in time to another. Sometimes her prose is so beautiful, I float in an airy dream, not want to move on, but hover over a scene, a hummingbird sipping the bittersweet that locks me into the emotional life of Tomás as a young boy, his dreams, the nature of his creativity, his longings. Tomás doesn’t remember the years of the Great Hunger while he is living at the workhouse, but he is planning with all that is within him to escape. He is an adult when the haunting memories resurface and exact harrowing consequences.
A taciturn man, Tomás is haunted by the ghosts of his past, even before remembering who those ghosts were. His wife also came through the Great Hunger and lost a mother and many siblings, a father who disappeared. They are cut off from their past, from parental love and support, but together they love their children the best that they can. From these lonely parents, O’Farrell fashions a family. She sculpts them all with words. Enda is the firstborn, a year older than Liam. She wishes to be acknowledged as smart and capable as her brother, Liam. Then, there is Rose, a beauty who shadows all her mother’s steps and becomes the keeper of the hearth. Lastly, a baby boy, who seems to soak the land up into his being.
This is a story about how we are molded by families and circumstance, by the land we love and live upon. I thought about how my own experiences with the land shaped me; about how the homes we lived in, and the homes we left behind, had made their mark. My sister and I were much like Enda and Rose, in a time before the internet and too much TV, in love with trees and creeks, dogs, dolls, and playhouses in the woods, always pretending and loving every minute of it. This wonderful book took me to Ireland in 1865 and the years when Tomás’s family was growing up, and it took me back to my past, my own relationship with the land.
This house is a thing both ancient and disjointed, an entity of addition and subtraction, a palimpsest of stone and wood and caulk and mud. Its existence here, on the peninsula, is proof that everything was once something else: nothing goes away.
July 4, 2026
Maggie O’Farrell has written a novel that is both a paean and a dirge to a land, a culture and a history. Her lush evocative prose elevates the land to a sentient being that emits emotions of joy, outrage and heartbreak. These elements create a narrative that extols resilience and the world’s natural majesty while excoriating the debilitating effects of colonial rule. This reading experience blends history and realism with a touch of folklore and mystery.
When land and history are involved, maps inevitably become a pivotal instrument that tie the two together. Maps have often been called the eyes of history and are the antennae that chronicle both change and continuity in world events.Maps reflect social values and shifts in power. The drawing and redrawing of borders on a map are a visual record of conquest and territorial control throughout time.
It is not surprising then that O’Farrell has chosen the family of a mapmaker to serve as the focal point that unfolds Ireland’s struggles under British rule.We meet Tomas in 1865. He is a surveyor and cartographer who has been hired by the British to map the terrain in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by the Potato Famine over the past twenty five years. Tomas, along with his ten year old son Liam, trods the land on the west coast of Ireland. The area has been ravaged by British neglect during the famine and towns,villages and cottages have disappeared, a silent elegy to the violence and injustice that has beset the region.Tomas is not well pleased to be employed by the British but realizes that his family must survive. Nevertheless, he silently bristles at the arrogance of the ruling class in excluding abandoned communities and renaming terrain to suit England’s purpose.
One day, Tomas barrels into a thicket in search of one of Liam’s boots. Inside the bushes, he discovers a small pool of water which transforms him from taciturn to wildly verbose. Tomas has become a changed man and informs Liam that everything is now different. He will henceforth craft maps that tell the true story of Ireland . It is not clear how this copse transformed Tomas. Might the copse been merely a spring of water? Or a “ faerie” well? Or a portal for time travel? What is clear is that Tomas’ encounter in the copse diverts the narrative path from strictly historical and sends it careening into past and future realms, introducing snippets of mystery and magic realism as an overlay to the main storyline.
In this way, the novel connects the world as we know it to Celtic legend and folklore. We become immersed in a panorama of Irish history, reaching back to the times when human sacrifice was a palliative to the gods and extending forward into the twentieth century. Embedded in this framework is the story of Irish diaspora augmented by prose that infuses history with the scents, sights and feeling of both oppression and fortitude.
The novel contains an epigraph defining the word seanchai as a custodian of tradition and reciter of ancient lore. This epigraph is a guidepost to remind us that ultimately, LAND is about feeling and emotion more so than facts and linear progression.For me, LAND is an example of oral storytelling.It is a reminder that we are a small part of the natural world and spend our lives attempting to unravel its mysteries.
When land and history are involved, maps inevitably become a pivotal instrument that tie the two together. Maps have often been called the eyes of history and are the antennae that chronicle both change and continuity in world events.Maps reflect social values and shifts in power. The drawing and redrawing of borders on a map are a visual record of conquest and territorial control throughout time.
It is not surprising then that O’Farrell has chosen the family of a mapmaker to serve as the focal point that unfolds Ireland’s struggles under British rule.We meet Tomas in 1865. He is a surveyor and cartographer who has been hired by the British to map the terrain in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by the Potato Famine over the past twenty five years. Tomas, along with his ten year old son Liam, trods the land on the west coast of Ireland. The area has been ravaged by British neglect during the famine and towns,villages and cottages have disappeared, a silent elegy to the violence and injustice that has beset the region.Tomas is not well pleased to be employed by the British but realizes that his family must survive. Nevertheless, he silently bristles at the arrogance of the ruling class in excluding abandoned communities and renaming terrain to suit England’s purpose.
One day, Tomas barrels into a thicket in search of one of Liam’s boots. Inside the bushes, he discovers a small pool of water which transforms him from taciturn to wildly verbose. Tomas has become a changed man and informs Liam that everything is now different. He will henceforth craft maps that tell the true story of Ireland . It is not clear how this copse transformed Tomas. Might the copse been merely a spring of water? Or a “ faerie” well? Or a portal for time travel? What is clear is that Tomas’ encounter in the copse diverts the narrative path from strictly historical and sends it careening into past and future realms, introducing snippets of mystery and magic realism as an overlay to the main storyline.
In this way, the novel connects the world as we know it to Celtic legend and folklore. We become immersed in a panorama of Irish history, reaching back to the times when human sacrifice was a palliative to the gods and extending forward into the twentieth century. Embedded in this framework is the story of Irish diaspora augmented by prose that infuses history with the scents, sights and feeling of both oppression and fortitude.
The novel contains an epigraph defining the word seanchai as a custodian of tradition and reciter of ancient lore. This epigraph is a guidepost to remind us that ultimately, LAND is about feeling and emotion more so than facts and linear progression.For me, LAND is an example of oral storytelling.It is a reminder that we are a small part of the natural world and spend our lives attempting to unravel its mysteries.
January 12, 2026
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.
June 23, 2026
Its mysticism solves the problem of being too obvious that is present in Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait, but the story is less convincing here than in those novels. The book is desperate to find a clear message.
June 6, 2026
This book made me tired.
I’ve read Marriage Portrait and Hamnet, wasn’t overly impressed by either one, and Land isn’t much different. SO much vast description, but this doesn’t equate to an easy, edge of my seat read. The prose will go from the past to the present in a single sentence, from a view point of a bird to the sky. And while I appreciate the depth, the characters and the storyline just never connected with me.
I forced myself to trudge (and skim) through it. I did enjoy the immigrant POV, as the entire premise (I think) is about colonization and the centuries of effects it has on individual families. Heartbreaking at times, but still a sludge to get through.
That being said, Maggie o’Farrell is for many people, and that is not me.
I’ve read Marriage Portrait and Hamnet, wasn’t overly impressed by either one, and Land isn’t much different. SO much vast description, but this doesn’t equate to an easy, edge of my seat read. The prose will go from the past to the present in a single sentence, from a view point of a bird to the sky. And while I appreciate the depth, the characters and the storyline just never connected with me.
I forced myself to trudge (and skim) through it. I did enjoy the immigrant POV, as the entire premise (I think) is about colonization and the centuries of effects it has on individual families. Heartbreaking at times, but still a sludge to get through.
That being said, Maggie o’Farrell is for many people, and that is not me.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
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.
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.
June 5, 2026
Honestly this one is probably on me.
I can’t follow this to save my life, I listened to it on audiobook WHILE holding and reading the physical copy. It’s deep, lyrical, character driven. I just keep zoning out.
Again, I know this about myself. I just got so much fomo with all the rave reviews.
I’ll see myself out.
I can’t follow this to save my life, I listened to it on audiobook WHILE holding and reading the physical copy. It’s deep, lyrical, character driven. I just keep zoning out.
Again, I know this about myself. I just got so much fomo with all the rave reviews.
I’ll see myself out.
Read
May 11, 20264⭐
Maggie O’Farrell’s novel ‘Land’ was inspired by her great-great-grandfather, who worked on the Ordnance Survey maps in Ireland. It’s set in post-famine Ireland and spotlights a father and son who are working on the map survey. Tomas has been deeply affected by the loss of the Great Hunger and is driven to record it. Liam, his 10-year-old son, suffers the brunt of his father’s quest.
O’Farrell’s vivid and richly described setting brings Ireland alive for readers. I almost felt the mist on my arms and the wind on my back as I was walking over the dew-sprinkled lands alongside the father-son team. You’ll agree that the setting here is almost a character itself. All that we expect from an Irish setting - the woodlands, the lore, the misty forests - it’s all here and so very magical.
I enjoyed O’Farrell’s exploration of trauma, separation, and how the ripple effects of a man’s desperate drive to keep history alive in the face of so much upheaval affected so many.
I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.
Maggie O’Farrell’s novel ‘Land’ was inspired by her great-great-grandfather, who worked on the Ordnance Survey maps in Ireland. It’s set in post-famine Ireland and spotlights a father and son who are working on the map survey. Tomas has been deeply affected by the loss of the Great Hunger and is driven to record it. Liam, his 10-year-old son, suffers the brunt of his father’s quest.
O’Farrell’s vivid and richly described setting brings Ireland alive for readers. I almost felt the mist on my arms and the wind on my back as I was walking over the dew-sprinkled lands alongside the father-son team. You’ll agree that the setting here is almost a character itself. All that we expect from an Irish setting - the woodlands, the lore, the misty forests - it’s all here and so very magical.
I enjoyed O’Farrell’s exploration of trauma, separation, and how the ripple effects of a man’s desperate drive to keep history alive in the face of so much upheaval affected so many.
I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.
June 23, 2026
Tomás and his ten-year-old son, who is acting as his chainboy for surveying, are making maps for the British who are occupying Ireland. It's the 1860s after the famine of the Great Hunger when Tomás' entire family died and he was sent to a workhouse for children. It was in the workhouse that he met the girl who was to become his wife. Tomás can measure and calculate, draw detailed maps, and also converse in both English and the native language to obtain names of hills, valleys, and ruined buildings. His maps and notes try to make visible the loss in population due to the Great Hunger and emigration. It is during the Ordnance Survey that Tomás and his son discover an ancient magical spot which will have great importance to the family.
Maggie O'Farrell's novel combines reality with a bit of magic. It heads to the future, then back to the ancient past, then follows the children to Canada, India, and other far places. The family never stops moving--plowing the land, building a house of stone, walking to the widow's house, gathering eggs, playing the fiddle, milking the cows, surveying for the redcoats, and crossing the Atlantic by boat. The book is also filled with music, especially when the older daughter Edna is playing her violin in a pub or busking for survival. The shadows of the British ruling class and the Catholic priests are always visible in the background. "A monstrous, shaggy beast" with "masses of grey fur, enormous long legs, a rag of the tongue lolling from its mouth" is the loyal dog, Bran, who will steal your heart.
I enjoyed how Maggie O'Farrell combined the surveying with Irish history, magic, and a love of the land. It's all tied up in a satisfying way at the end.
Maggie O'Farrell's novel combines reality with a bit of magic. It heads to the future, then back to the ancient past, then follows the children to Canada, India, and other far places. The family never stops moving--plowing the land, building a house of stone, walking to the widow's house, gathering eggs, playing the fiddle, milking the cows, surveying for the redcoats, and crossing the Atlantic by boat. The book is also filled with music, especially when the older daughter Edna is playing her violin in a pub or busking for survival. The shadows of the British ruling class and the Catholic priests are always visible in the background. "A monstrous, shaggy beast" with "masses of grey fur, enormous long legs, a rag of the tongue lolling from its mouth" is the loyal dog, Bran, who will steal your heart.
I enjoyed how Maggie O'Farrell combined the surveying with Irish history, magic, and a love of the land. It's all tied up in a satisfying way at the end.
June 23, 2026
This book will go on my list of all time favorites! It is a powerful, beautiful and tragic novel land and nature and a family who lives there. The land, around which everything revolves and by which all are affected, is a peninsula in western Ireland (beginning in 1865). This book is Irish and grounded in both nature and humanity.
The first characters introduced are Tomas (father) and Liam (son), who are employed by the British (“redcoats”) to map parts of Ireland, particularly the changes wrought by the Great Hunger. Liam wanders into a mysterious copse with a mystical pool/spring/natural well; Liam leaves terrified; his father enters the copse and drinks from the well; and their lives and the lives of their other family members are irrevocably changed.
Tomas is a broken person on many levels (he suffered the Great Hunger and spent years in a workhouse), yet he cannot resist knowing the land and mapping it. Liam is conflicted between his father and a Jesuit priest’s calling him to a religious life. The other members of Tomas and Liam’s family are also important characters. Liam’s sister, Enda, is strong of spirit and will. His sister, Rose, is meek and helpful. His brother, Eugene, suffers from mental disabilities and does not talk – yet he plays a vital role in the family. Tomas’ wife, Phina, who spent years in a workhouse, is a wonderful mother in every respect. The widow (a neighbor) gives of herself to Tomas’ family in ways too numerous to count. I certainly cannot leave out one of the most important family members, Bran, the dog. All I will say is that he quite an amazing creature!
The plot is wonderful and complex. Through Tomas’ reflections, the story goes back in time to his years in a workhouse (as a result of the Great Hunger) and his learning about mapping. Enda is never satisfied and tries to find escape – literally and through her fiddle playing. Through Rose, all aspects of daily life on an Irish farm are developed. Eugene’s role is subtle – just because he cannot speak does not mean that he does not completely understand.
Maggie O’Farrell takes the reader back in time through a history of this area of western Ireland. Brith, a young woman, and her dog live in undesignated, ancient times, and are buried in the copse. A house is built on the site of Tomas’ family’s house many years before Tomas rebuilds it for his family. Throughout these stories and Tomas and Phina’s workhouse stories, the underlying Irish history is related.
Reading Maggie O’Farrell is like watching a perfect movie – only better! Daily life on an Irish farm, with all its challenges and rewards is tangibly portrayed. The descriptions of passage in the hold of a ship from Ireland to Canada were horrific. Life as an immigrant in the Quebec area was also shown in hopeful and tragic detail.
But the heart of the story is the land, and the incredible descriptions of it. The plot revolves around it: Tomas maps it, generations live there and it brings love, food, happiness and tragedy to Tomas’ family. The magic well is a pervasive force in the plot and the lives of the characters. Very few authors can even aspire to describe nature as beautifully and completely as Maggie O’Farrell does. It is the natural world – the land – that is the shining character and dominant force in this novel. I was completely awed by the depth and breadth of this novel - - I will never forget it.
The first characters introduced are Tomas (father) and Liam (son), who are employed by the British (“redcoats”) to map parts of Ireland, particularly the changes wrought by the Great Hunger. Liam wanders into a mysterious copse with a mystical pool/spring/natural well; Liam leaves terrified; his father enters the copse and drinks from the well; and their lives and the lives of their other family members are irrevocably changed.
Tomas is a broken person on many levels (he suffered the Great Hunger and spent years in a workhouse), yet he cannot resist knowing the land and mapping it. Liam is conflicted between his father and a Jesuit priest’s calling him to a religious life. The other members of Tomas and Liam’s family are also important characters. Liam’s sister, Enda, is strong of spirit and will. His sister, Rose, is meek and helpful. His brother, Eugene, suffers from mental disabilities and does not talk – yet he plays a vital role in the family. Tomas’ wife, Phina, who spent years in a workhouse, is a wonderful mother in every respect. The widow (a neighbor) gives of herself to Tomas’ family in ways too numerous to count. I certainly cannot leave out one of the most important family members, Bran, the dog. All I will say is that he quite an amazing creature!
The plot is wonderful and complex. Through Tomas’ reflections, the story goes back in time to his years in a workhouse (as a result of the Great Hunger) and his learning about mapping. Enda is never satisfied and tries to find escape – literally and through her fiddle playing. Through Rose, all aspects of daily life on an Irish farm are developed. Eugene’s role is subtle – just because he cannot speak does not mean that he does not completely understand.
Maggie O’Farrell takes the reader back in time through a history of this area of western Ireland. Brith, a young woman, and her dog live in undesignated, ancient times, and are buried in the copse. A house is built on the site of Tomas’ family’s house many years before Tomas rebuilds it for his family. Throughout these stories and Tomas and Phina’s workhouse stories, the underlying Irish history is related.
Reading Maggie O’Farrell is like watching a perfect movie – only better! Daily life on an Irish farm, with all its challenges and rewards is tangibly portrayed. The descriptions of passage in the hold of a ship from Ireland to Canada were horrific. Life as an immigrant in the Quebec area was also shown in hopeful and tragic detail.
But the heart of the story is the land, and the incredible descriptions of it. The plot revolves around it: Tomas maps it, generations live there and it brings love, food, happiness and tragedy to Tomas’ family. The magic well is a pervasive force in the plot and the lives of the characters. Very few authors can even aspire to describe nature as beautifully and completely as Maggie O’Farrell does. It is the natural world – the land – that is the shining character and dominant force in this novel. I was completely awed by the depth and breadth of this novel - - I will never forget it.
June 10, 2026
2.5⭐️ Having read and loved everything O’Farrell has written up to this point and rushed out to get my copy on release day, it really pains me to say that this was a huge disappointment. Of course it’s beautifully written as you would expect, but that just isn’t enough to make up for how slow and dull this is. For whatever reason I couldn’t really connect with any of the characters which meant that when tragedies occurred, I wasn’t really moved by them. The pacing was so slow that I really had to push hard to keep going with this and if it was anyone other than O’Farrell I would have DNF’d after 100 pages. Clearly I am an outlier here as this has some amazing reviews but sadly this just didn’t engage me at all.
June 30, 2026
4.5 ⭐️ For over a week now, this book has given my brain and Google a workout, but I’m so glad I persisted. It’s not a story that can be rushed and it’s a commitment for sure, but one that left me in awe as I finished the last line. Authors truly are a gift for us. Once I’ve given my brain a break, I hope to give more of O’Farrell’s books a try.
July 7, 2026
3.5 stars
RTC!
RTC!
June 25, 2026
“… the cragged cliffs that fall off into the pounding sea: a geometric shape moving among grand and yielding irregularities. How radiant, how lovely is the land – and yet how empty. It is as if he has passed through a rent into another realm where humans are unknown, where he is the only one, and will have to make the best of it.”
Land is the tenth novel by award-winning, bestselling Irish author, Maggie O’Farrell. The audio version is narrated by Dane Whyte O'Hara. The peninsula juts out into the Atlantic Ocean and has been the site of invasion, famine, destructive storms. In 1865, it’s where ten-year-old Liam reluctantly aids his father, Tomas, employed by the redcoats to draft accurate maps. Tomas sends him to investigate a copse of trees that is absent from the current map, but Liam has a frightening experience at the strange circular pool within, emerges crying.
Tomas goes in to find Liam’s lost boot, but is there a long time and comes out radically changed, garrulous instead of his usual taciturn self. What he’s babbling about has Liam anxious regarding the maps Tomas is meant to complete for much-needed payment. But neither of them has any idea of the changes to their futures that are wrought by their visit to the spring, the tobar the locals say is magical.
The local priest steps in to sort Tomas out, and the man who returns to Phina and their daughters in Dublin, with a smaller purse from the redcoats than expected, at first takes to his bed and refuses to work for the redcoats. Phina’s mending work won’t keep them fed or their rent paid, but soon, Tomas has an alarming plan for his family.
In their thatched cottage on the peninsula, eldest daughter, Enda misses her leading position in their Dublin street, but eventually finds solace in the fiddle their neighbour gives her; Phina can see that Tomas’s intentions to pass mapping skills on to Liam are falling on infertile ground; Rosie transfers her devotion from Phina to Bran, the enormous wolfhound who adopts them; baby Eugene watches, learns, absorbs, but never speaks; and Liam breaks his family’s hearts by becoming a Jesuit missionary.
As O’Farrell traces the paths of those who have lived on the peninsula, who have been affected by the spring, sometimes in small vignettes, sometimes more elaborately, she also explores the power of the clergy, and the connection to the land reminiscent of the Australian natives bond to country. Love, grief, poor choices, chance encounters and near misses, departures and arrivals, all feature in this wonderful work of historical fiction.
Throughout, O’Farrell treats the reader to exquisite descriptive prose: “A skein of marsh birds passes over his head, their cries a dissonant plucking on untuned instruments”, “… as if she is being scorched by the focused, inescapable beam of Rose’s fury all the way from the peninsula” and “Was it then that Liam felt his faith loosening in its foundation, like an unsound tooth?” are examples.
Also: “By the end of the following day, the cottage has acquired a thick lid of thatch, the straw-ends trimmed and shaped to a massed curve, the gables snugly covered. The rain slicks off it and the wind skims over it, as if the elements are surprised by this development and wish to test its properties.” Maggie O’Farrell always delivers.
Land is the tenth novel by award-winning, bestselling Irish author, Maggie O’Farrell. The audio version is narrated by Dane Whyte O'Hara. The peninsula juts out into the Atlantic Ocean and has been the site of invasion, famine, destructive storms. In 1865, it’s where ten-year-old Liam reluctantly aids his father, Tomas, employed by the redcoats to draft accurate maps. Tomas sends him to investigate a copse of trees that is absent from the current map, but Liam has a frightening experience at the strange circular pool within, emerges crying.
Tomas goes in to find Liam’s lost boot, but is there a long time and comes out radically changed, garrulous instead of his usual taciturn self. What he’s babbling about has Liam anxious regarding the maps Tomas is meant to complete for much-needed payment. But neither of them has any idea of the changes to their futures that are wrought by their visit to the spring, the tobar the locals say is magical.
The local priest steps in to sort Tomas out, and the man who returns to Phina and their daughters in Dublin, with a smaller purse from the redcoats than expected, at first takes to his bed and refuses to work for the redcoats. Phina’s mending work won’t keep them fed or their rent paid, but soon, Tomas has an alarming plan for his family.
In their thatched cottage on the peninsula, eldest daughter, Enda misses her leading position in their Dublin street, but eventually finds solace in the fiddle their neighbour gives her; Phina can see that Tomas’s intentions to pass mapping skills on to Liam are falling on infertile ground; Rosie transfers her devotion from Phina to Bran, the enormous wolfhound who adopts them; baby Eugene watches, learns, absorbs, but never speaks; and Liam breaks his family’s hearts by becoming a Jesuit missionary.
As O’Farrell traces the paths of those who have lived on the peninsula, who have been affected by the spring, sometimes in small vignettes, sometimes more elaborately, she also explores the power of the clergy, and the connection to the land reminiscent of the Australian natives bond to country. Love, grief, poor choices, chance encounters and near misses, departures and arrivals, all feature in this wonderful work of historical fiction.
Throughout, O’Farrell treats the reader to exquisite descriptive prose: “A skein of marsh birds passes over his head, their cries a dissonant plucking on untuned instruments”, “… as if she is being scorched by the focused, inescapable beam of Rose’s fury all the way from the peninsula” and “Was it then that Liam felt his faith loosening in its foundation, like an unsound tooth?” are examples.
Also: “By the end of the following day, the cottage has acquired a thick lid of thatch, the straw-ends trimmed and shaped to a massed curve, the gables snugly covered. The rain slicks off it and the wind skims over it, as if the elements are surprised by this development and wish to test its properties.” Maggie O’Farrell always delivers.
July 9, 2026
A masterpiece.
January 29, 2026
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!
June 16, 2026
** June 2026 BOTM Add-On **
3.5 stars
This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2026. I'm probably an outlier here with my rating. For some reason, I didn't connect with this one as much as I did with Hamnet. There were a lot of aspects that I really enjoyed such as the story itself felt like something new and refreshing. I just wish that it was more engrossing for me.
3.5 stars
This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2026. I'm probably an outlier here with my rating. For some reason, I didn't connect with this one as much as I did with Hamnet. There were a lot of aspects that I really enjoyed such as the story itself felt like something new and refreshing. I just wish that it was more engrossing for me.
July 8, 2026
Totally immersive, spanning deep connections that run through one family and the peninsula they come to inhabit, some of whom are more connected to that land than others, but all of them have their unique experience from under that roof and in that copse and around that source.
Drifting between reality and realms that not all perceive, it follows the lives of 6 members of a family, a dog, a widow, a village and in the background, the great Hunger that decimated their community, and in the shadow, the destructive force of an overbearing manor and a viscount's son and the system of oppression they upkeep that keeps tenants poor and Lords and clergy lording it over them all.
Brilliant.
Drifting between reality and realms that not all perceive, it follows the lives of 6 members of a family, a dog, a widow, a village and in the background, the great Hunger that decimated their community, and in the shadow, the destructive force of an overbearing manor and a viscount's son and the system of oppression they upkeep that keeps tenants poor and Lords and clergy lording it over them all.
Brilliant.
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