September’s Novel on My Mind

Maggie O’Farrell’s words on the page are powerful.

After her last novel, Hamnet, I couldn’t imagine another book captivating me more. But she’s done it again.

Land is an emotional story, raw and passionate.

I found myself at times holding my breath, feeling pressure build in my chest as if a great sob would burst forth, then sighing in relief. If you’re up for some angst you’ll find it here and be well rewarded for the time spent with characters you route for at every turn of the page. 

The surveyor, Tomás, survives the Great Famine, and convinces his wife, Phina, to leave the city with their children. Edna is the head strong daughter, Liam the rebellious son, Rose aptly named for her sweetness, and Eugene lives in his own world—apart from them yet an intricate link in their family chain. They are surrounded by simmering tensions with their British ruler and employer, the Catholic church’s demands on their lives, and the dense copse with its mystical well, relic, and spirits inhabiting the land as much as they are.

Their home is ‘a narrow promontory of land lapped on either side by cold blue inlets: a peninsula, stretching out into the Atlantic, like an imploring hand, the westernmost scrap of Europe before it surrenders to icy cross-currents of a vast ocean.’ And so it is no surprise that some of the children venture away but the conditions under which they do so is what makes this story a compelling richly layered read.

Land, Maggie O’Farrell

2026, Alfred A. Knopf, 400 pages