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Landed
Brought up in the Anglo-Welsh borders by an affectionate but alcoholic and feckless mother, Owen Ithell's sense of self is rooted in his long, vivid visits to his grandparents' small farm in the hills. There he is deeply impressed by his grandfather's primitive, cruel relationship with his animals and the land. As an adult he moves away from the country of his childhood to an English city where he builds a new life, working as a gardener. He meets Mel, they have children. He believes he has found happiness - and love - of a sort. But following a car accident, in which his daughter is killed and he loses a hand, the course of his life and the lives of those he loves is changed forever. Owen, unable to work, alienated and eventually legally separated from his family, is haunted by suicidal thoughts. In his despair, he resolves to reconnect with both his past and the natural world. Abducting his children, he embarks on a long, fateful journey, walking to the Welsh borders of his childhood. In his confusion his journey is a grasping at some kind of an understanding of his loss. Powerful, richly evocative and perfectly poised between the hope of redemption and the threat of irrevocable tragedy, Landed is Tim Pears' most assured and beguiling novel to date.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
13 people are currently reading
308 people want to read
About the author
Tim Pears
20 books104 followersBorn in 1956, Tim Pears grew up in Devon and left school at sixteen. He worked in a wide variety of unskilled jobs: trainee welder, assistant librarian, trainee reporter, archaeological worker, fruit picker, nursing assistant in a psychiatric ward, groundsman in a hotel & caravan park, fencer, driver, sorter of mail, builder, painter & decorator, night porter, community video maker and art gallery manager in Devon, Wales, France, Norfolk and Oxford.
Always he was writing, and in time making short films. He took the Directing course at the National Film and Television School, graduating in the same month that his first novel, In the Place of Fallen Leaves, was published, in 1993.
Always he was writing, and in time making short films. He took the Directing course at the National Film and Television School, graduating in the same month that his first novel, In the Place of Fallen Leaves, was published, in 1993.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
February 25, 2017
Landed is the life story of Owen Ithell, a seemingly happy husband and father whose life is torn apart by a car accident in which his eldest daughter is killed and he loses a hand. It is also a book of two halves - literally: the first half is more like a dossier than a novel. This consists of a number of scenes, virtually self-contained short stories, from Owen's childhood; a police crime scene report; a therapist's case study; a statement from Owen's ex-wife about their relationship; and Owen's introductory post on a Fathers4Justice-style online forum. The second half then takes the form of a conventional narrative following Owen's progress in attempting to win back the affection of his children.
In the hardback edition that I read, the blurb on the inside flap of the cover gave away almost everything that happens in the story, save for the ending (the official summary on Goodreads is the same, fyi). I don't want to do the same thing in my review, but surprisingly, this didn't really do anything to affect my enjoyment of the novel. There's a quiet and very simple sort of beauty in the prose - it's difficult to explain, but somehow the narrative always manages to generate sympathy for its characters while at the same time retaining a certain distance from them, which gives the style an unusual but effective coolness. The ending, meanwhile, is simultaneously shocking and inevitable - in fact, I'd describe a number of things that happen in Landed in the same way. There were times when I wished I could 'get closer' to the characters, get inside their heads and under their skin more, but I think, in the end, that keeping them at arm's length is what made the story so effective.
This book initially attracted me because of the plot's apparent similarity to Ross Raisin's God's Own Country, which - like The Secret History - has become one of those exalted books I am constantly searching for replicas of. Inevitably, the 'replicas' are never as good as the 'original', even if they were written first, even if the author is far more lauded and well-respected. Landed was an interesting and moving read, but it totally lacked the incredible lasting impact God's Own Country had on me. On top of that, I actually preferred the mixture of formats in the first half of the book (criticised by some reviewers) to the more straightforward plot of the second, and I would rather the whole story have been told like this. Landed is a bleak and poignant novel: the sort of story I enjoyed and appreciated enormously, but probably wouldn't want to re-read.
In the hardback edition that I read, the blurb on the inside flap of the cover gave away almost everything that happens in the story, save for the ending (the official summary on Goodreads is the same, fyi). I don't want to do the same thing in my review, but surprisingly, this didn't really do anything to affect my enjoyment of the novel. There's a quiet and very simple sort of beauty in the prose - it's difficult to explain, but somehow the narrative always manages to generate sympathy for its characters while at the same time retaining a certain distance from them, which gives the style an unusual but effective coolness. The ending, meanwhile, is simultaneously shocking and inevitable - in fact, I'd describe a number of things that happen in Landed in the same way. There were times when I wished I could 'get closer' to the characters, get inside their heads and under their skin more, but I think, in the end, that keeping them at arm's length is what made the story so effective.
This book initially attracted me because of the plot's apparent similarity to Ross Raisin's God's Own Country, which - like The Secret History - has become one of those exalted books I am constantly searching for replicas of. Inevitably, the 'replicas' are never as good as the 'original', even if they were written first, even if the author is far more lauded and well-respected. Landed was an interesting and moving read, but it totally lacked the incredible lasting impact God's Own Country had on me. On top of that, I actually preferred the mixture of formats in the first half of the book (criticised by some reviewers) to the more straightforward plot of the second, and I would rather the whole story have been told like this. Landed is a bleak and poignant novel: the sort of story I enjoyed and appreciated enormously, but probably wouldn't want to re-read.
April 12, 2010
The story starts cold and factual in the form a collision investigators report, then for the first part of the book alternates between alternate forms of storytelling, and Owen’s childhood in the Welsh countryside. These parts are easily my favourites for different reasons.
The forms for the way it allows you to fill in parts of the story leading up to the present, instead of – how it could easily be done –a narrative match of third person depicting the scenes. The alternate forms (report, an exceptionally long letter, first person direct address, and forum posting) told a story where you’re able to fill in the blanks. However, these were abandoned in the back-half of the novel, which left them feeling a little gimmicky. But like I said, I enjoyed them, but I wish there was more of a through-line to it.
Owen’s childhood is told in languid, quietly simmering but powerful flashbacks, evoking his grandfather’s manner. There is beauty in these sections, the way Owen grows to love the land also made you look forward to spending time in them, even as Owen starts drifting into his own separate and secretive projects and his grandfather deals badly with his problems by stubbornly refusing to lose one of his flock. Something Owen echoes later in the novel, when he kidnaps his children when refused visitation. Losing a hand, and losing his family damaged Owen.
The back-half was told with a little more whimsy despite the damage, and there are some details that seemed odd. This half is told in a fixed perspective. Owen is broken, not being formed or falling apart. Both these things immediately separate it from the rest of the novel. This is where a bit of sag starts showing. Owen has kidnapped his kids and they make their way to the hills of his childhood, where depending on your interpretation, where the emotional impact should be dissipated or heightened, but really there is a lot of confusion, for me at least.
There is skill, and poetry in the writing. The different sections at the beginning use different languages, including the mother of Owen’s children murdering the English language, some of her vocabulary bleeds into the kids so they sound like a mix of both parents when they speak. The odd details make sense in the end, but I am not sure what to make of the story. There is a lot I enjoy, it was a pleasant read, and I loved parts of it, parts where I got really drawn into the story, but I do feel like devices were either wasted or unnecessary even if I really enjoyed them. I think this is because an expectation of style and emotion which wasn’t carried through evenly. I found myself missing the book I was reading at the beginning.
The forms for the way it allows you to fill in parts of the story leading up to the present, instead of – how it could easily be done –a narrative match of third person depicting the scenes. The alternate forms (report, an exceptionally long letter, first person direct address, and forum posting) told a story where you’re able to fill in the blanks. However, these were abandoned in the back-half of the novel, which left them feeling a little gimmicky. But like I said, I enjoyed them, but I wish there was more of a through-line to it.
Owen’s childhood is told in languid, quietly simmering but powerful flashbacks, evoking his grandfather’s manner. There is beauty in these sections, the way Owen grows to love the land also made you look forward to spending time in them, even as Owen starts drifting into his own separate and secretive projects and his grandfather deals badly with his problems by stubbornly refusing to lose one of his flock. Something Owen echoes later in the novel, when he kidnaps his children when refused visitation. Losing a hand, and losing his family damaged Owen.
The back-half was told with a little more whimsy despite the damage, and there are some details that seemed odd. This half is told in a fixed perspective. Owen is broken, not being formed or falling apart. Both these things immediately separate it from the rest of the novel. This is where a bit of sag starts showing. Owen has kidnapped his kids and they make their way to the hills of his childhood, where depending on your interpretation, where the emotional impact should be dissipated or heightened, but really there is a lot of confusion, for me at least.
There is skill, and poetry in the writing. The different sections at the beginning use different languages, including the mother of Owen’s children murdering the English language, some of her vocabulary bleeds into the kids so they sound like a mix of both parents when they speak. The odd details make sense in the end, but I am not sure what to make of the story. There is a lot I enjoy, it was a pleasant read, and I loved parts of it, parts where I got really drawn into the story, but I do feel like devices were either wasted or unnecessary even if I really enjoyed them. I think this is because an expectation of style and emotion which wasn’t carried through evenly. I found myself missing the book I was reading at the beginning.
October 28, 2011
heres a review which sums up how i felt about the book. unfortunately the book left me a bit cold and muddled in the end. i really liked Pears writing, beautifully written infact, but it just lost its grip half way thru the book.
"If the first half of the novel dramatises Owen’s childhood and the fallout from the crash – his refuge in alcoholism, grieving for his daughter and crippled by phantom pain in his missing arm – the second half is a more linear account of his abduction of Josh and Holly, his children. Owen turns up at the school and persuades their teachers to let them leave – one can’t help thinking that the school would have phoned the children’s mother to check out Owen’s story – and they set off on an arduous journey, completed mostly on foot, foraging for berries as they go, to the Welsh hills of Owen’s childhood.
...
Though Landed is structurally flawed, and sometimes strains the reader’s credulity, there is no denying Pears’s achievement in the character of Owen, a raw, desperate man even before he is filled up with grief, and his deeply poetic descriptions of an old-fashioned life on the land."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/bo...
"If the first half of the novel dramatises Owen’s childhood and the fallout from the crash – his refuge in alcoholism, grieving for his daughter and crippled by phantom pain in his missing arm – the second half is a more linear account of his abduction of Josh and Holly, his children. Owen turns up at the school and persuades their teachers to let them leave – one can’t help thinking that the school would have phoned the children’s mother to check out Owen’s story – and they set off on an arduous journey, completed mostly on foot, foraging for berries as they go, to the Welsh hills of Owen’s childhood.
...
Though Landed is structurally flawed, and sometimes strains the reader’s credulity, there is no denying Pears’s achievement in the character of Owen, a raw, desperate man even before he is filled up with grief, and his deeply poetic descriptions of an old-fashioned life on the land."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/bo...
November 27, 2011
Really enjoyed the first half of the book. Owen as a boy visiting his grandparents farm in Wales, and learning about the animals and nature from his irascible grandfather. All beautifully depicted by the author. As an adult he moves to a city, marries and has children. Then his life is changed forever when he has a car accident that kills a daughter and he loses a hand. The second half has more of a dream like quality, and was good reading, but disquieting. He takes his children on a long trek back to where he was raised. I'm not sure I understood the ending.
April 29, 2012
I was lucky enough to be sent this novel by Windmill books following a give-away on Twitter. Landed was originally published by William Heinemann in 2010 and then by Windmill books in 2011.
This was Tim Pears 6th novel – I have only read 2 of the others – one I loved (In the place of fallen leaves) and one I like rather less (Revolution of the sun). I also watched the TV adaptation of his novel In a Land of Plenty – and heard from my mum that the novel was wonderful too – I didn’t manage to get around to that one but wish I had.
Landed is quite a bleak novel, the story of a man’s life as it comes apart at the seams is terribly sad, but beautifully written. Owen Wood is a quiet man, a gardener who had spent much of his childhood on the hills of the Welsh Marches helping his grandfather on his sheep farm. Owen has a love and understanding of the natural world, but now he lives in Birmingham. Following a car accident that results in the loss of his dominant hand and his eldest daughter Sara, Owen’s life begins to fall apart. His marriage fails, his business fails, and he is tortured by phantom limb pain, he takes to drink.
The story of Owen’s childhood with his grandfather learning about the ways of the countryside is interspersed with documents surrounding the events of Owen’s progress following the accident in Birmingham, an accident report, a case study, internet forum posts – these documents keep the adult Owen at arm’s length for the reader at first. This I am sure is deliberate – as Owen does slowly emerge – a deeply wounded man, separated from his two children, estranged from his wife. Owen decides to undertake a journey – back to the hills in the west where he had spent so much time as a boy. As the journey Owen takes with his children progresses the reader does feel that something isn’t quite as it seems, and yet I was a bit dim about what was happening and so didn’t see the end coming at all, I am sure I should have done. Landed is a beautifully evocative novel, the descriptions of the countryside, so rich in detail, one can smell the woods and see the hills rise up off the page. The picture of a broken man is truly heart breaking. This is a novel that will live in the memory for a long time. I now want to go back and read the earlier novels of Tim Pears I have missed.
July 6, 2011
Remarkably disturbing book. Can't stop thinking about its unusual structure and feeling the depth of sadness portrayed in it. The novel is compared to those of Kent Haruf, and that is perhaps because much of it takes place out of doors and because the emotional plot moves forward through the descriptions of action almost entirely. Even emotions are betrayed as physical sensations.
October 31, 2023
When Owen loses a limb in an accident , his life changes forever.
Landed is a fascinating and beautifully written book. The writer lost me in the second half and I am disappointed to admit that I did not understand the ending.
Landed is a fascinating and beautifully written book. The writer lost me in the second half and I am disappointed to admit that I did not understand the ending.
October 15, 2014
His breath condenses before him. The weather is still insane. The sky is dark, deep grey, almost black, a single enormous cloud heavy with water or ice. He pauses for a moment to listen, realising as he does so it is silence that has prompted him. There is no sound of either birdsong or running water, the accompaniment to his and the children's odyssey. A stillness that is more like autumn than spring, as if the earth is holding its breath, this great organism anaesthetising itself against the approach of winter.
In this novel Pears creates with elegiac style a modern day Pilgrim's Progress in which the traumatised father Owen crosses from the urban landscape of Birmingham into the countryside back to his roots in a hill farm in Wales. This is a novel in which descriptions of trauma and squalor are juxtaposed alongside passages of great lyrical beauty. There is also a fascinating essay on phantom limb pain. A strange moving novel that will stay in my mind not least for the vivacity of its language and imagery.
In this novel Pears creates with elegiac style a modern day Pilgrim's Progress in which the traumatised father Owen crosses from the urban landscape of Birmingham into the countryside back to his roots in a hill farm in Wales. This is a novel in which descriptions of trauma and squalor are juxtaposed alongside passages of great lyrical beauty. There is also a fascinating essay on phantom limb pain. A strange moving novel that will stay in my mind not least for the vivacity of its language and imagery.
January 27, 2011
A mysterious, beautifully written tale.
But I wasn’t sure that I’d completely understood what happened at the end! When the fat man in the wheelbarrow showed up that was when I thought it was descending into a magic realist kind of thing…..I might have to go back and read it again (it was nearly 1am when I finished it and my patient husband had asked me to turn the light out a few times!)
In the Place of Fallen Leaves is still my favourite of Tim Pears' novels, but I found Landed to be beautifully written for the most part, almost lyrical, and Owen as a character is a triumph.
I was lucky enough to have Tim Pears as a tutor at my Arvon course last year and could kick myself for not having read this first!! :)
But I wasn’t sure that I’d completely understood what happened at the end! When the fat man in the wheelbarrow showed up that was when I thought it was descending into a magic realist kind of thing…..I might have to go back and read it again (it was nearly 1am when I finished it and my patient husband had asked me to turn the light out a few times!)
In the Place of Fallen Leaves is still my favourite of Tim Pears' novels, but I found Landed to be beautifully written for the most part, almost lyrical, and Owen as a character is a triumph.
I was lucky enough to have Tim Pears as a tutor at my Arvon course last year and could kick myself for not having read this first!! :)
August 29, 2011
This story opens with a court report about an accident that may or may not have been caused by a dog crossing the road.
Then we switch point-of-view to a therapist trying to help a strange taciturn Welshman deal with the fact that he lost a hand.
Through a series of flashbacks and narrators, the story of the man unfolds. His childhood time with his grandfather in Wales, falling in love, his children. Whom he eventually kidnaps after a bad divorce, to take them back to Wales.
I was engaged for most of the book, and Pears does a pretty good job of distinguishing voice.
Gotta say though that the ending was somewhat enigmatic and unsatisfactory for some reason.
Then we switch point-of-view to a therapist trying to help a strange taciturn Welshman deal with the fact that he lost a hand.
Through a series of flashbacks and narrators, the story of the man unfolds. His childhood time with his grandfather in Wales, falling in love, his children. Whom he eventually kidnaps after a bad divorce, to take them back to Wales.
I was engaged for most of the book, and Pears does a pretty good job of distinguishing voice.
Gotta say though that the ending was somewhat enigmatic and unsatisfactory for some reason.
May 12, 2012
A beautiful book. Starts off at a completely different tone to how it ends and moves into a strange dream like state that become increasingly emotionally engaging and feels almost surreal at times. I don't want to say anything about the story it's self as I don't feel I could do it justice and wouldn't want to give anything away. I take the previous criticism that the halves of the book feel quite different but did not find this distracting in any way. I would be interested in reading people's thoughts on the ending.
April 16, 2012
Landed by Tim Pears is about a man’s personal tragedies. The main character was in a car accident in which his daughter perishes and he has to have his right hand amputated. After all this his wife divorces him and she has full custodial rights over the children making it impossible for him to see his kids. The characters are all detached and after finishing the book I feel like there is another, deeper, story in there.
3 Stars
3 Stars
August 10, 2012
There is something missing in this novel for me...something in the structure that makes the story inaccessible to the reader. it's very hard to comment on this novel without giving it away. I was left very much perplexed by the obscurity of Owen's perception left untranslated by any other character as the book progressed. It was there in the beginning but then disappeared.
I can't say much more than that I was left baffled....like there was a whole section of the book missing.
I can't say much more than that I was left baffled....like there was a whole section of the book missing.
September 22, 2011
I was mildly disappointed by an unsatisfactory ending and by a surreal shift towards the end of the book, but this is nevertheless a painfully authentic, and profoundly moving novel. It it possesses its own slow, quiet and stubborn beauty.
February 28, 2013
A wonderful read with characters you can really relate to and a powerful ending that will reduce a grown man to tears.
September 11, 2013
Moved very slowly at times but all in all, a beautifully written story that will leave you thinking at its conclusion.
April 23, 2024
Raised on the Welsh border by a loving but alcoholic mother, Owen Ithell creates a sense of identity centered on long visits to his grandparents' small farm in the hills.
As an adult, Owen moves from the countryside of his childhood to an English city where he builds a new life, working as a gardener. He meets Mel and they have children. Owen believes he has found happiness - and love.
However, after a car accident in which his daughter dies and he loses a hand, the course of his life and the lives of those he loves the most is changed forever. Unable to work, alienated and legally separated from his family, he is plagued by suicidal thoughts. In desperation, he decides to reconnect with his past and the world of Nature. He kidnaps his own children and embarks on a long and tragic journey, on foot, to the Welsh border of his childhood. In his turmoil, the journey is an attempt to understand the loss he has suffered.
Powerful, rich, evocative, and perfectly balanced between the hope of redemption and the threat of irrevocable tragedy, Return to the Roots is Tim Pears' most assured and seductive novel to date.
I loved the story, Although the beginning is kind of boring but in the midle starts to be interesting
the final is like ????????????????
I ve been reading some comments here and I love how the autor just put all the reads discuts to themselfs about the mistery ending, I ve thinking and I thing owen he was committed to a purgatory and everything that happened after the incident with Mel's husband was all a delusion, because all he wanted most was to show the camp to his children, his life and the life he wanted his children to see, he never had the opportunity to spend time with them because of Mel, I don't blame her because she was a mother and I don't know what she would do if I were her. that Josh disappeared out of nowhere, and Holly got sick and in the end they both showed up together with their mother
I got sick and lost in mt thoughts so :D I forgot
As an adult, Owen moves from the countryside of his childhood to an English city where he builds a new life, working as a gardener. He meets Mel and they have children. Owen believes he has found happiness - and love.
However, after a car accident in which his daughter dies and he loses a hand, the course of his life and the lives of those he loves the most is changed forever. Unable to work, alienated and legally separated from his family, he is plagued by suicidal thoughts. In desperation, he decides to reconnect with his past and the world of Nature. He kidnaps his own children and embarks on a long and tragic journey, on foot, to the Welsh border of his childhood. In his turmoil, the journey is an attempt to understand the loss he has suffered.
Powerful, rich, evocative, and perfectly balanced between the hope of redemption and the threat of irrevocable tragedy, Return to the Roots is Tim Pears' most assured and seductive novel to date.
I loved the story, Although the beginning is kind of boring but in the midle starts to be interesting
the final is like ????????????????
I ve been reading some comments here and I love how the autor just put all the reads discuts to themselfs about the mistery ending, I ve thinking and I thing owen he was committed to a purgatory and everything that happened after the incident with Mel's husband was all a delusion, because all he wanted most was to show the camp to his children, his life and the life he wanted his children to see, he never had the opportunity to spend time with them because of Mel, I don't blame her because she was a mother and I don't know what she would do if I were her. that Josh disappeared out of nowhere, and Holly got sick and in the end they both showed up together with their mother
I got sick and lost in mt thoughts so :D I forgot
October 23, 2023
I think this was the best read I've had in around 6 months.
I was very pleasantly surprised with the way the author writes. I think the translation to portuguese lacks some perfectionism, as there are some words misspelled.
The first part has a very different structure to the last part. The first part can be more captivating for someone who likes thrillers, and the second part is a lot more descriptive and feels like a fever dream. It's sometimes thrilling and sometimes just more descriptive, but it's the ambience that makes it characteristic to me.
It's unlike anything I've ever read. It leaves me wondering and makes me want to read it again immediately. Maybe I'll give it 5 stars when I reread it?
I was very pleasantly surprised with the way the author writes. I think the translation to portuguese lacks some perfectionism, as there are some words misspelled.
The first part has a very different structure to the last part. The first part can be more captivating for someone who likes thrillers, and the second part is a lot more descriptive and feels like a fever dream. It's sometimes thrilling and sometimes just more descriptive, but it's the ambience that makes it characteristic to me.
It's unlike anything I've ever read. It leaves me wondering and makes me want to read it again immediately. Maybe I'll give it 5 stars when I reread it?
September 14, 2019
I really enjoyed the first part of this, the depiction of life in the countryside was beautiful. However, once Owen manages to remove his children from school, somehow without their mother's permission, the whole thing seems to unravel.
The depiction of Owen's adventureos on the run with his children just lack any sense of reality. This may be deliberate, given the ending of the novel, but I simply lost interest in what was going to happen to these people when I didn't believe in them any more.
The depiction of Owen's adventureos on the run with his children just lack any sense of reality. This may be deliberate, given the ending of the novel, but I simply lost interest in what was going to happen to these people when I didn't believe in them any more.
June 12, 2023
I think some stories can take us so far out of ourselves and into another, totally different life…..
In this case that of a lovely, quiet, wounded man called Owen. The main part of the novel concerns a journey he embarks upon with his children.
Their way through the landscape is both mundane and magical, veering between the two towards revelation and redemption.
…..that when we leave the story it’s a wrench, a bump back to earth. And if it’s a special enough tale, like this, it leaves an afterglow.
In this case that of a lovely, quiet, wounded man called Owen. The main part of the novel concerns a journey he embarks upon with his children.
Their way through the landscape is both mundane and magical, veering between the two towards revelation and redemption.
…..that when we leave the story it’s a wrench, a bump back to earth. And if it’s a special enough tale, like this, it leaves an afterglow.
April 24, 2020
(contains spoilers) A lot of reviewers really enjoyed the beginning of this novel but I like the second part. I love nature and it was beautifully described and I felt as though I were also on the journey.
I am still unsure about the end. Was the whole journey with the children a dream or some sort of fantasy in purgatory? Clearly Rosie is symbolic for the dog he avoided during the accident.
Wish I had read this in book club so I could discuss it!
I am still unsure about the end. Was the whole journey with the children a dream or some sort of fantasy in purgatory? Clearly Rosie is symbolic for the dog he avoided during the accident.
Wish I had read this in book club so I could discuss it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 8, 2018
Picked this up from the library, with no expectations. Found a new author I want to read more of. Fascinating, vivid portrait of the English countryside, great characterization, and a leisurely plot development with an enigmatic twist in the end. All the right ingredients make this a thoroughly satisfying read, despite its gloom.
January 27, 2020
Wonderfully descriptive writing and the family tragedy and its aftermath, told in different voices and styles was compelling. It was never going to all end happily, but it’s hard to work out when it all disintegrated. Perhaps I need to read it again to understand the ending fully.
October 14, 2018
This book kept me guessing as to where it was going and I was happy to follow it. A mix of fact and fantasy which I enjoyed.
November 21, 2020
The early part of the book was as beautiful and genius as anything I’ve ever read. Then I just got very tense at the plot, and then confused and ultimately annoyed with its shift into unreality.
July 9, 2013
Tim Pears’ “Landed” started off so promisingly with a Collision Investigator’s Report (with photos) and a tantalising thread of an unknown fatality, a serious injury and the possibility of the accident being caused by a stray dog. This is written as a fact based clinical numbered report, lacking compassion. We then flash back to a sheep farm in the Welsh highlands where an eleven-year-old Owen is being partially raised by his almost silent grandfather and his grandmother. We then have a section about the physical and mental effects of losing a limb (obviously the result of the accident in the first “chapter”) and our protagonist’s suffering of pain in his missing hand. There are further flashbacks to Owen’s youth and what would appear to be current time first person narratives by our main character and further ones by his estranged wife. In my mind this was a fair, if somewhat uneven, construction of a broken man’s life, which would slowly lead to a revelation of the questions asked in the early sections, explain the relevance of studying local wildlife and bring the Welsh countryside into the story as a character in its own right.
For a full review visit my blog at www.messybooker.blogspot.com
For a full review visit my blog at www.messybooker.blogspot.com
December 12, 2015
This was a holiday charity shop buy and I knew nothing about the author or the novel; it is the sort of book I would have enjoyed sharing with a book club. We went away just as I finished reading it, so did not have a chance to put my thoughts down straight away - but I am not totally sure what my thoughts are and have enjoyed reading the other reviews.
A very physical book, a story approached from different directions such as the official reports on the accident and on Owen. In the second half we drift on a journey and I love the idea of tracking a path through the countryside, avoiding contact with the modern world.The reader is sure 'The Authorities' will catch up with Owen and his little band, but instead we are led to the unexpected.
A very physical book, a story approached from different directions such as the official reports on the accident and on Owen. In the second half we drift on a journey and I love the idea of tracking a path through the countryside, avoiding contact with the modern world.The reader is sure 'The Authorities' will catch up with Owen and his little band, but instead we are led to the unexpected.
May 4, 2017
I'd not come across Tim Pears before, but after reading the Amazon reviews, including the mysterious ending, felt I had to give this one a go. I have not been disappointed although I'm afraid it has kept me from sleep tonight. I shan't reiterate the plot, I shall just say it is very much a book of two halves. Many reviewers have said that all is not seems in the second half and you should bear that very much in mind and consider how the first part ends.
Meanwhile, I shall continue to blubber into my tissues.
Meanwhile, I shall continue to blubber into my tissues.
May 3, 2016
Wow... I have never experienced such suspense and tension in a book before. I'm also bowled over by the immersion in country lore. What is really striking towards the latter half of the story is the random nature of events and meetings as the surreal asserts itself and it's so hard to know what is real and unreal. This is masterfully done, but watch out - you're not going to have an easy ride. This book takes a little effort - but it is well rewarded.
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